Latest / Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint / Pitch Perfect, Persona Polished: Selling in the Digital Age
Transcript
- 0:00Hello and welcome. My name is Tavishima Ayede.
- 0:04I solve sales and marketing challenges.
- 0:07And I'm making today's recording from my living room.
- 0:10So expect to hear interruptions in the background, especially
- 0:12since the neighborhood kids are running, you know, all over the
- 0:15place. So you know, noise from both
- 0:16ends. Now, the goal of this podcast is
- 0:19not to tell you about my neighbour's kids.
- 0:21We're actually here to talk about business education.
- 0:23So please spread the word so that friends and family members
- 0:27in Nigeria and abroad can benefit from the questions that
- 0:30we tackle. They can do that by subscribing
- 0:33on Spotify, YouTube, Apple, or any player of their choice.
- 0:37And if you'd love to connect with me, by the time you're
- 0:40done, you can call, you can SMS, you can WhatsApp me on
- 0:4308064662140. Now today on the podcast, we're
- 0:52going to look at listener questions and it's a couple of
- 0:56questions from Dave, who is a podcast listener.
- 1:00He reached out to me on WhatsApp, I think on WhatsApp
- 1:031st, and he sent me a couple of questions and I promised I'd get
- 1:08back to him and I haven't gotten back to him.
- 1:11We tried talking and we didn't end up talking.
- 1:15So I told him, you know what, I'll just make a podcast
- 1:17recording and once it's up, listen, if there's anything I
- 1:21didn't address, send me a follow up question.
- 1:23If there's anything that I misunderstood, send me a follow
- 1:25up question. So this is going to be me trying
- 1:29to answer Dave's questions best I can.
- 1:32But Dave Novaks, I just wrote out the questions and I wanted
- 1:36to restart on the answers. So it's not like I sat down and
- 1:42give this the fullest deliberate role.
- 1:46I say anyhow, sure, let me just go on and answer the questions.
- 1:52So let's see, OK, So I remember now, so a lot of the questions
- 1:56were around how to send direct messages, how to do sales
- 2:01pitches and let's see, OK. And then previously on social
- 2:07media and on the Internet. So again, the questions that
- 2:10we're going to tackle around how to handle DMS, that is direct
- 2:16messaging, how to do e-mail prospecting as you're trying to
- 2:19draw more business by sending people e-mail.
- 2:22So basically just sliding into people's inboxes.
- 2:25Then how to make a pitch when you don't know anything about
- 2:28the person that you're talking to.
- 2:29Because of course, that's a situation that a whole lot of us
- 2:32find ourselves in because initially when we're doing
- 2:36business, you know, we're going to reach out to friends, family
- 2:38members and associates. But we didn't like carrying like
- 2:40four or five months. We've spoken to everybody.
- 2:42We've spoken to all our cousins, our brother, our sister, current
- 2:45girlfriends, side piece, ex girlfriends, current boyfriends,
- 2:49Magas, Mugus, uncles, aunties, daddy, mommy, stepmother,
- 2:54stepfather. As we've talking, we've spoken
- 2:56to everybody. And so eventually we get to that
- 2:58point where we now have to start talking with strangers and, you
- 3:03know, we guess to that point where, OK, I want to go and see
- 3:06Chief so, so and so or I want to send an e-mail to this person or
- 3:09I want to send Adm to this person, but I don't know she she
- 3:13about this person. So we all we all get to that
- 3:16point then previously on social media, all of us have some kind
- 3:22of accounts. We're all putting our content
- 3:23every day, but we do not realize that we're building up a
- 3:26treasure trove of information about ourselves.
- 3:30And so Dave is one of those people who listen to the podcast
- 3:32episode where I was talking about how I use Truecaller and
- 3:36Google to do research on somebody before I slide into
- 3:39their DM or before I pick up the phone and give them a call.
- 3:43So he's one of those people if another person told me before
- 3:46Dave. So there's some of you who are
- 3:47just realizing. So he did a small search, you
- 3:50know, Truecaller, Google, and then he saw the amount of
- 3:53information on himself. And, you know, Dave shout, he
- 3:55said, Chai, now I see me, only me.
- 3:59So all the information that is out there.
- 4:00And so of course, he's worried there are more.
- 4:02There's too much information about me on the Internet.
- 4:04You know, what will I do? So that one is normal because
- 4:11how will I put it? You know, this Internet thing is
- 4:13relatively new. So a bunch of us have been
- 4:16living on the Internet without thinking about identity
- 4:19protection, you know, identity protection, safety, you know,
- 4:25things like that as we're just leaving Shah and we don't
- 4:27realize all the things are cropping up.
- 4:28So we'll tackle some of that anyway.
- 4:30So that's just basically somewhere of all the things that
- 4:33we're going to do. So now Dave had the question,
- 4:36yes. By the way, I'm not putting
- 4:37Dave's surname to protect his privacy, but I'm mentioning Dave
- 4:43so that you know Dave for those days that I've chatted with, if
- 4:46you're the one that I promised, you know, like 3 or 4 days ago
- 4:49that I was going to do this, then this is you.
- 4:51And then of course, you will know from the kind of questions
- 4:54that we answer that it's, it's you.
- 4:56That's why I'm not using the surname.
- 4:58So first of all, how to send DMS.
- 5:01So he listened to an episode that I made around DMS and then
- 5:04his question was, does all this apply when it comes to emails?
- 5:08And the answer is yes, maybe I didn't say it on that episode
- 5:12and it's something I should say time and time again.
- 5:15But really, whenever you hear me, not just me or any other
- 5:18person talking about all these messaging things, you will find
- 5:23that in principle, whatever the person is saying applies to
- 5:26e-mail, to DM, to WhatsApp, to whatever, So long as it's
- 5:32business outreach, you'll find that in principle, it all
- 5:35applies. The contexts, you know.
- 5:37Will you tweak it differently? But in principle it all applies.
- 5:41And I can't remember correctly, but the principles I've been
- 5:45talking about when it comes to reaching out to people sliding
- 5:48in through their DMS, number one is targeting and relevance.
- 5:51Targeting just means, How do I put it?
- 5:56Am I focused on the right person?
- 5:57Is this person my ideal customer?
- 6:00Does this person have a problem that my product or my service
- 6:05can fulfill? Is there some resonance there?
- 6:08Have I done some research ahead of time to be sure that there's
- 6:11some relevance? So targeting and relevance is
- 6:14basic. That one is foundational because
- 6:18there are people who keep sending messages and they say
- 6:21Good afternoon Ma. I mean, from Good afternoon Ma,
- 6:23you've lost me. I'm not a woman.
- 6:28So at Good Afternoon Ma, you have lost me.
- 6:31Now, of course, somebody like me, because I'm interested in
- 6:33sales and marketing and different kinds of marketing
- 6:35communications, I will open it because I'm trying to see what
- 6:39is the latest trend, how people send the messages, what is the
- 6:41thing that is going around now. But the average person, once
- 6:45they say Good Afternoon Ma, all the men who receive that message
- 6:48will delete. Now people who are fierce like
- 6:52my wife or my mother-in-law, when they receive that message
- 6:54and they say good afternoon, Sir, or they say good afternoon
- 6:57Sir, Slash Mark or to whom it may concern, they will just
- 7:02select unblock. So targeting and relevance is
- 7:07foundational, whether it's Instagram DM or WhatsApp or
- 7:12whatever. See, you have to at least form
- 7:17that you know who this thing is going to pretend.
- 7:21Make some small effort. Is this person a man or a woman?
- 7:26Get their name right. I mean, just all these simple,
- 7:28simple things targeting on point or segmenting.
- 7:32Because even though I keep talking about it, there are some
- 7:35of you who still want to wake up and send one message to 500
- 7:38people and then say you've done work.
- 7:40OK, no problem. If you must send 500 messages, I
- 7:42will argue with you again, but at least do proper segmenting.
- 7:47You have to arrange your broadcast list in such a way
- 7:50that that good afternoon Sir will only show up in men's inbox
- 7:57and then good afternoon Ma will only show up in females inbox.
- 8:02And please stop this. You know, good afternoon, Sir
- 8:05Slash Ma. As we've gone beyond that,
- 8:08that's what people used to do in the 80s and you know, was
- 8:12accepted business practice. You know, dear Sir Slash Ma
- 8:16Slash, to whom we may concern, you know that time has passed.
- 8:20So stop trying to do what used to work in the 1980s.
- 8:25Stop trying to do that in 2025. That time has passed.
- 8:29So for those of you who insist you still want to be sending out
- 8:32hundreds and hundreds of messages, then OK, what you
- 8:34should be doing is segmenting. But the spirit behind what we're
- 8:40saying is this target your messages properly.
- 8:45Let it be relevant and let it speak to who it is getting to.
- 8:54So there's some work there. I'll leave you guys to flesh out
- 8:56the particulars on your own because no matter how much I say
- 9:01make sure that the message is tailored, there's still those of
- 9:03you who would like to send broadcast messages.
- 9:06If you're broadcasting, make sure it is targeted.
- 9:09If you're going to do some form of tailoring, all you need to do
- 9:12is copy paste and then edit. I know it sounds like work, but
- 9:15it saves time. Copy paste edit deletes name,
- 9:20put the new person's name. Make sure you now put something
- 9:22personal in the first paragraph. The rest of the message will
- 9:25still remain essentially the same.
- 9:28The call to action will still remain the same.
- 9:29Yes, it looks like it's work. But if you have a Bluetooth
- 9:32keyboard and you're doing copy paste edit, you probably can
- 9:36send, you know, 15, you know maybe like 1015 messages in a in
- 9:44a minute. I know it looks like it's work,
- 9:45but anyway, let me stop. So yes, targeting relevance,
- 9:50yes, that applies. So whether is Instagram, whether
- 9:54is DM, whether is e-mail, that applies.
- 9:56Now brevity, brevity just means keep it short.
- 10:00Keep it short. That definitely applies to
- 10:02e-mail because most people are reading their emails on the fly
- 10:07and reading their emails on the phone.
- 10:11So as a default, if people have to be flicking through your
- 10:16messaging, they are not going to read it.
- 10:19You want the thing to show up one time.
- 10:22If there's going to be a scroll, I'm begging you, let it be 1
- 10:25flick. By the time you enter into two
- 10:28or three flicks, you know there are studies based on these
- 10:30things. The longer it is, the less
- 10:33people are opening are reading it.
- 10:40And for the people that read, the less of them are
- 10:43understanding what it is. And I getting the point.
- 10:47So for people to open it, keep it short for people to
- 10:52understand it, keep it short. If you can let it just be one
- 10:58time. As in once you click on open,
- 11:01everything is just on the phone screen like that.
- 11:03You there must be a flick. Let it just be 1 flick, 2-3
- 11:07flicks. Your, your metrics are beginning
- 11:10to go down. So the goal is not, did I send
- 11:16the e-mail to 1,000,000 people? The goal is of the million
- 11:19people who received it, how many of them opened?
- 11:22Of the min, Of the number that opened, how many of them read?
- 11:26Of those that read, how many understood?
- 11:28Of those that understood, how many took action?
- 11:31That is the goal. So if you send a million emails
- 11:35and only 100 people read it and only 20 understood and only five
- 11:39took action, I'm afraid your campaign is 0, it is fail.
- 11:46But if you send only 10 emails, 8 of them opened, seven of them
- 11:54read and understood and then five of them took action, that
- 11:57is considered the pass. Some of you will say and what's
- 12:00the difference at the end of the day is only 5 people that took
- 12:02action? No, it's about the conversions.
- 12:07How many people took the next step?
- 12:09Because this is the theory in the first case, the person who
- 12:13sent a million and only got 5, if you give that person access
- 12:18to everybody on Earth, 8 billion people, the person is still not
- 12:21going to do good with that. But the person who sent it to 10
- 12:27and ended up with five, in theory, if you give that person
- 12:31access to a wider database, the person is going to end up
- 12:33getting more money from it because they have more
- 12:35conversions. All right, so let me move on.
- 12:39Brevity, keep it short is the same for e-mail.
- 12:43Then I also talk about how you should confirm whether people
- 12:46are interested or confirm if your unique selling proposition
- 12:49or your unique value proposition matches what it is matches their
- 12:56need. One example that I've given in
- 13:01the past is OK from my wedding photography days.
- 13:04I've told you guys about how it doesn't make sense.
- 13:07I can't keep peppering a babe with messages about wedding
- 13:11photography if Habbo has not proposed.
- 13:14I'm just wasting time. Habbo has not proposed yet and
- 13:17she has not forced him to propose.
- 13:18Why am I peppering her with messages?
- 13:23If they have proposed but the family hasn't met and there's no
- 13:26time for a wedding date yet? Well, OK, I can be sending
- 13:30messages. But no, it's still arguable
- 13:32because the wedding train is not moving yet.
- 13:36So at some point, your messages have to be brief enough and you
- 13:38have to get to the point where you ask the person you know, are
- 13:42you interested in this? Are you interested in wedding
- 13:44photography? Or research shows that X percent
- 13:47of people in this industry? OK, let me see.
- 13:50OK, Not Dave. I was talking to another Dave.
- 13:52And this Dave, what he does is websites.
- 13:56And Dave was worried about his e-mail outreach.
- 14:00And, you know, I told him at some point you have to get
- 14:01straight to the point. You have to ask them, first of
- 14:06all, do some basic research because some people already have
- 14:09websites. So for the people who don't have
- 14:11websites, at some point you have to ask them and say, OK, most
- 14:14people who have websites, they do it because, sorry, I can't
- 14:18remember. What did we say?
- 14:19Again, most people OK, visibility.
- 14:23He has visibility. And then what?
- 14:24Again, closing deals. OK, that's what we came up with,
- 14:29visibility and then closing deals that you can use websites
- 14:32to help you close deals. So at some point you have to ask
- 14:34the person, you know, most people in your line of business
- 14:37who have websites, they do it because they want more
- 14:40visibility or they want to be able to close more deals.
- 14:43Is this something that you're interested in?
- 14:45Bam, put it out. You know what your own unique
- 14:50value proposition is or your own unique selling proposition is.
- 14:53Put it out there and see if they're interested.
- 14:55Get straight to the point, keep it brief.
- 14:58The people that will ignore you, let them ignore.
- 15:00The people that do respond, you can see that you are engaging
- 15:04them in the conversation and moving somebody on to the next
- 15:06step. So this works for e-mail too.
- 15:11At some point you have to put it out there.
- 15:13This is what I do. Are you facing this problem?
- 15:16Are you interested? I know it seems scary, but you
- 15:22sit down, listen to some material like mine or other
- 15:25people out there. You can take a few days, 2-3
- 15:28days. You can come up with a framework
- 15:30and then you start testing it. You take Monday, you send it to
- 15:34like 10 people and see what happens.
- 15:39You know, maybe Wednesday, send it to another 10, see what
- 15:42happens. You know, small, small, small.
- 15:44But the perfect script is not created in one day.
- 15:48It takes time, it takes iterations.
- 15:51And the good news is we have time.
- 15:52There are 52 weeks in a year. If you use five weeks to get
- 15:56your scripts in order, it's not a problem.
- 16:00That means you now have 47 weeks to actually use the script to
- 16:04get some work done. So it's not a rush, you know,
- 16:08countdown, let's get this thing. You know, what do Chinese people
- 16:11say? They say measure 5 times and
- 16:13then strike once instead of cutting five times and you've
- 16:17now messed up the whole job. So relax.
- 16:21We'll measure, we'll plan. We will, you know, and then
- 16:24we'll get decisive. We'll take action.
- 16:28Then let's see what else. I also talk about seeking
- 16:31advancements. When you're sending DMS,
- 16:34advancements just means moving a deal to the next logical step or
- 16:40the next realistic step. The opposite of advancements is
- 16:46continuations, and that is where a lot of business people in
- 16:49Niger, that's where we end up, continuations.
- 16:52Continuations is when you and the other person, you guys are
- 16:54having wonderful conversations, you're flowing, you're friendly,
- 16:58but The thing is you, as in you would not decide the next step.
- 17:03You call the person you G's the Big Brother, everything in
- 17:06tenable economy, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, my guy, I'll
- 17:09call you later, but you would not decide on anything.
- 17:13You didn't decide on what the guy is going to do to move the
- 17:16deal forward. You didn't decide on what you
- 17:18are going to do to move the deal forward.
- 17:20You just called and had a wonderful 7 minute conversation.
- 17:22You now say you're doing relationship building or you're
- 17:25bonding on your networking. As in networking how it's a
- 17:30continuation. You're wasting your time because
- 17:32every single time you call this guy or you call this babe, you
- 17:35will decide on nothing. You have wonderful gist, but you
- 17:37decide on nothing. Even worst, if you guys meet up
- 17:40in the flesh and then you have ECA will pepper soup and then
- 17:45stout and everything, you're just wasting your money.
- 17:47You think you're making progress.
- 17:48You are not making progress because you're not trying to
- 17:51gain advancements. At some point you have to say
- 17:54OK, oh bro, OK, as per we've discussed this, we've discussed
- 17:57we've got this. OK, So in my own opinion now I
- 17:59think the next step is we have to move here.
- 18:01You know, Bros how you see them. Your bro says no, relax, you're
- 18:06running too fast. You now know that, OK, there's
- 18:08stuff you need to revisit in the conversations, but at least now
- 18:13you know that there's some hintrance you have to deal with.
- 18:16And if boss or the customer, the babe says, yeah, sure, no
- 18:20problem. I think it's time for us to move
- 18:21to that step. Very good.
- 18:22You've now made an advancement. You've moved the thing forward.
- 18:26And lots of you are sending emails or sending DMS without
- 18:31putting, without trying to get an advancement, without putting
- 18:34any CTASCTAS call to action. There has to be some form of
- 18:38advancement. If you're interested, click
- 18:41here. Now that we are done with this,
- 18:43the next step is we need to book a meeting for whatever,
- 18:48whatever, whatever, book here for the meeting or the next step
- 18:51is we have to have an in in person consultation.
- 18:56Does when? Wednesday next week does
- 18:58Wednesday next week 8:00 AM. Does that work for you?
- 19:02We have to be seeking advancement.
- 19:05Small, small, small. They should always be a call to
- 19:08action. If you send a message, you don't
- 19:11put call to action. You're not trying to seek
- 19:13advancement. The person will read, I'm like,
- 19:15oh, OK, I'll get to this later. And then things happen.
- 19:23Things happen. They will say, I'll get to it
- 19:24later. And then the guy's wife will
- 19:27come and say, oh, babe, have you seen this thing on Netflix?
- 19:30And then he'll put his phone down and before you know it, you
- 19:32know his Netflix and chill. And then tomorrow, 50 other
- 19:36emails who enter into the inbox. Your own message is now buried
- 19:39down there. You will say the guy is ghosting
- 19:41you. No, he's not really ghosting
- 19:43you. There was no CTA.
- 19:44He wasn't quite sure what to do. He read the message, he kind of
- 19:46understood. But then life just happened.
- 19:51So there should be a call to action there.
- 19:53So bro, I think the next step is blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
- 19:56What do you think? Question mark or he put a call
- 20:00to action so that he's supposed to do something else.
- 20:03If you're not sure about what the next step is, your e-mail
- 20:05can be OK. We have achieved this disease.
- 20:07Is this in your own opinion, what do you think is the next
- 20:10step that we ought to do? Question mark, leave it.
- 20:13There's something that is hanging that this person has to
- 20:14get back to. So for DMS, for emails, for
- 20:21WhatsApp messages, please always be seeking advancements, always
- 20:25be using call to action. In fact, as a general rule, I
- 20:28tell my clients that all your emails must end in question
- 20:31mark. I don't care how you're going to
- 20:33do it. The e-mail must end in a
- 20:34question mark so that there's something to reply, there's
- 20:38something to do, there's something shot that has not been
- 20:42that we have to get to. That's just my general rule.
- 20:44All your emails must end in question mark.
- 20:47All your WhatsApp must end in question mark.
- 20:51This has to be back and forth. We have to be having a
- 20:53conversation. All right.
- 20:56I think I have overflowed that and let me see what else.
- 21:00OK, So yes, so all these principles that I've spoken
- 21:03about so far for direct messages, it applies to e-mail
- 21:07targeting and relevance has to be on point.
- 21:11We need to know who we're sending this thing to.
- 21:13There has to be some sort of relevance.
- 21:15There has to be a match, some some of match here.
- 21:19If you don't want to do too much work, then at least do
- 21:23segmenting. The one that is supposed to go
- 21:25to men, let it go to men. The one that is supposed to go
- 21:27to women, let it go to women. Now stop this thing of you craft
- 21:31a message, you send it to 3000 people on your phone or you send
- 21:35it to 5000 people in your e-mail inbox.
- 21:38And then you say, dear slash slash ma, you know, stop it.
- 21:42This is not 1980 anymore. Stop it.
- 21:46All right, and then plus now we actually have the technology to
- 21:48figure out whether it is a SAR or it is a MA that we are
- 21:51sending this thing to. So let's see what else?
- 21:55OK, now the question. Now the question you asked me is
- 21:57how do you pitch when you don't know who you're talking to?
- 22:00Now this is the answer. You guys listen up.
- 22:01Let me tell you the secret. This is how you pitch when you
- 22:05don't know who you're talking to.
- 22:06Are you guys ready? OK, cool.
- 22:09This is the answer. You can't do it.
- 22:13That's a simple answer. You can't make a pitch when you
- 22:17don't know who the hell you're talking to.
- 22:19Just being frank with you, it's like in normal relationship, boy
- 22:24girl relationship, if I don't have some kind of semblance
- 22:28about who the babies, I don't know how the hell I'm going to
- 22:31start toasting her. Or you're a babe, you're liking
- 22:35a guy you don't have a clue about what kind of guy is.
- 22:38You don't know how you're going to have to start you.
- 22:41You don't know how you start sliding into this situation.
- 22:45There's some guys that like the babe to be direct for that one.
- 22:49If you're playing koi and you're being a Mary Amaka, you've lost
- 22:52the plot. There are some guys who like
- 22:55Mary Amaka for that person. If you try to be too direct,
- 23:01you've lost the plot. It's the same thing with the
- 23:04guys. There are some babes who don't
- 23:07care about roses. Like what are you buying me
- 23:09flower for? Flower will die and every week
- 23:12you're signing how flowers you've lost the plot.
- 23:16There's some babes who prefer speak your mind.
- 23:18If you're hanging out with that kind of babe and you're doing
- 23:20let's be friends, Let's be friends.
- 23:21You're losing the plot. It's the same thing in business.
- 23:27If I have no sense, OK, let's look at fundraising since I've
- 23:31been getting lots of questions about raising funds.
- 23:33If I don't know anything about chief so so, so and so like, how
- 23:37am I supposed to start the conversation, introduce my
- 23:43brilliant idea that I want to raise funds for or something
- 23:47when I don't know the kind of person he is, his investment
- 23:51philosophy, the things that he likes, whether he even drops
- 23:56money for other people's businesses.
- 23:58I have to do some kind of research to find out something.
- 24:03A1 single something, you know, sales, his work.
- 24:11If you don't know anything about this person, then don't, don't
- 24:14pitch. Well, if you want to pitch,
- 24:17especially if you're doing through e-mail, then yeah, sure,
- 24:19go ahead. Just know that yours will be one
- 24:22of these campaigns where you send 5000 messages and it is
- 24:26ignored immediately by 98% of the people who receive it
- 24:31because you didn't do any small research.
- 24:33Do some small research. Research.
- 24:35If you don't want it to be tailored to a specific person
- 24:37and you do some small research and do segmenting so that the
- 24:40different versions of pitches that you're sending out, you
- 24:43know that OK, this e-mail should be received by men between the
- 24:46ages of this and this who live in Abuja and this one should be
- 24:50received by women between the ages of this and this who live
- 24:52in this part of town or something.
- 24:54But you have to do some sort of research and then segment your
- 24:58messages or tailor the messages. When I say tailor, I mean you're
- 25:02sending it to one person, segmenting, you're sending it to
- 25:04groups of people, but don't be throwing out pitches when you
- 25:08don't know anything about the person.
- 25:10Do small research. That is precisely the reason why
- 25:13I made that podcast episode where I spoke about how, if
- 25:18nothing else, I take the phone number and put it in Truecaller
- 25:22and then I run search. Truecaller will give me the
- 25:24person's name. I'll now copy and paste that
- 25:26name. I'll throw it into Google.
- 25:28It's not. I won't ask anything of Google.
- 25:30Just take the person's name and put it in Google and then hit
- 25:32send. And then things will come out.
- 25:34The person's LinkedIn will come out, their Facebook will come
- 25:36out, and then from there I will get a sense of see, if nothing
- 25:41else at that stage, I know that it is good morning, Sir, I'm
- 25:44going to send or good morning, Ma.
- 25:46If I didn't learn anything at all, at least I know how to
- 25:49start. That will start.
- 25:49Good morning, Sir. Good morning, good morning, Ma.
- 25:53From the things that I see online, I'll now get a sense of
- 25:56whether I will say, hey, what's up Trucudi, how you did or good
- 26:02afternoon Bros or I don't know, just go ahead, do this process.
- 26:09You will see what I mean by the way you see somebody's profile,
- 26:13you see their profile picture, you see some of the things that
- 26:15they put online, you see some of the causes the person is
- 26:17interested in. It gives you a sense of, OK,
- 26:20this is how I will start this outreach with this person or
- 26:24this is how I start to enter into the situation.
- 26:27And that is some basic research that is free.
- 26:30There's plenty of paid stuff that can be done.
- 26:32I don't even talk about the paid stuff because I don't even want
- 26:36anybody to tell me I don't have money.
- 26:38So this is the reason why I only talk about the free stuff so
- 26:40that there's no excuse. When you become a Don with the
- 26:43free stuff, you can now start looking at paid opportunities,
- 26:47paid things that give you much more, much more information.
- 26:52But right now, Google Truecaller social media, at least it's
- 26:56enough to give you some information that you can go on
- 27:00now that is not available. Of course, you know that before
- 27:04Internet there was always face to face.
- 27:07So before if you wanted to get a meeting with with deaconess,
- 27:14Deaconess Akubiru, but you don't know how one-on-one you go to
- 27:18church and you ask somebody that have been thinking of meeting
- 27:21this big auntie, I want to discuss this that that I be.
- 27:23What do you think? What kind of person is she?
- 27:26So in the old days, that's what people used to do.
- 27:29I beg, can you introduce us? I mean, simple things like that.
- 27:35But on pitch, if you don't know who you're talking to, go and do
- 27:40some kind of research. If you continue to pitch and you
- 27:45don't know who it is that you're talking to, just know that your
- 27:47results are will be hit and miss.
- 27:49And a lot of the times it will be miss, right?
- 27:54Let's see what else. Now there's something that, so 1
- 28:00moment, there's something that our tech brothers and our tech
- 28:05sisters like to call data enrichment.
- 28:08Data enrichment just means how do we find more information?
- 28:14So basically what I'm just saying is this, whenever you're
- 28:17about to reach out to someone, first of all, you get the
- 28:19contact detail. Your next assignment now is data
- 28:22enrichment. Whether you're going to do
- 28:24online or whether you're going to ask one or two people about
- 28:27data enrichment, what other information can we find?
- 28:30But one thing that you guys ought to know, we can't do this
- 28:35data enrichment. We can't do this exercise in
- 28:37perpetuity. If you spend one hour
- 28:39researching somebody, you are wasting too much time.
- 28:42I'm talking about knowing one or two.
- 28:45I'm talking about research you can do in three to 5 minutes and
- 28:49then just start your basic outreach.
- 28:52Because remember, we still don't know if these people have a
- 28:55problem that our product or our service, you know, can solve.
- 28:58But we just need to know enough that the message seems targeted
- 29:03and relevant to them. So that's the answer to that
- 29:07question. You can't pitch if you don't
- 29:09know who you are talking to then.
- 29:12OK, Finally, OK, 30 minutes. Let me wrap this up.
- 29:16So if you're like Dave now and you did this, my assignment, you
- 29:22decided to check Truecaller and then you saw that Truecaller has
- 29:27your full government name there as it appears on the birth
- 29:29certificate. By the way, I don't know how
- 29:31this thing is done. I'm thinking maybe it's because,
- 29:34you know, you go to MTN, you go to Glow, you register your new
- 29:37number, you put your name there. So maybe that's how Truecaller
- 29:40and all these people, maybe that's how they get our real
- 29:42name. I really don't know how it
- 29:43works. I'm not a techie, but The thing
- 29:45is, if you go there and you find out your full name is there as
- 29:48it appears on your birth certificate, you copy and you
- 29:50paste it in Google. And then your whole life story,
- 29:53you know, comes up, including, you know, the girl that you
- 29:56broke up with or the time that you had some police trouble or
- 29:59something like that. And now you're scared.
- 30:02What do you do? Well, first of all, realize that
- 30:10well, First off, it's not that bad because at this stage, so 1
- 30:14moment, so our message came in, I just wanted to see was urgent.
- 30:19So at this stage, you haven't blown yet.
- 30:22So it's not as if you're you're not your prime target yet.
- 30:25So just relax. You know, it's not as if you
- 30:27have blown. You're now like like a big movie
- 30:31star like Ramsey Noah or you know, the head of Access Bank or
- 30:35something. So don't worry, you're not a
- 30:37target. People have not started
- 30:38targeting you yet. So this time, So what you're now
- 30:40going to do is you're going to start curating information that
- 30:44is online about you creating just means you are now going to
- 30:47be deliberate about the information that is there.
- 30:50You will now start deleting stuff and you now start
- 30:54restricting stuff. So if your Instagram profile was
- 30:57open before, you will now put on restrict so that Google cannot
- 31:03check it freely. If there's stuff on your
- 31:07LinkedIn profile that you don't want people to see, you delete
- 31:10that. I don't know if you can restrict
- 31:12your LinkedIn profile, but sure, you just start curating.
- 31:15Start deleting all those embarrassing pictures on
- 31:18Facebook. Start deleting them now, now,
- 31:20now, now, now. See, by the way, some people say
- 31:23nothing that you put on the Internet is ever truly gone, you
- 31:26know? Yes.
- 31:26But The thing is, sure, you can do your best and start curating.
- 31:31For those of you who are listening to this and you are
- 31:34based in Europe, the good news is that in Europe, the EU is now
- 31:40trying to push this thing about people's right to data is a kind
- 31:45of people's right to data and the right to data.
- 31:49So I think it's called the rights to be forgotten.
- 31:51Sorry, forgive me. You know, I've been out of the
- 31:53legal system for a very long time.
- 31:54So I think it's called the rights to be forgotten.
- 31:56And the right to be forgotten is part of a right of previous
- 31:59privacy and data and then all of that.
- 32:02So in the in Europe, you actually now can tell Google
- 32:05that look, Google all these pictures you have of me and
- 32:08everything. I don't like it.
- 32:10Stop this rough play, delete all my pictures.
- 32:14So that is going on in the EU. So for those of you who are in
- 32:17the European Union, good news, you now have more control.
- 32:21So do some more research on the right to be forgotten.
- 32:25So you know, use ChatGPT or Google or whatever.
- 32:28So Google it and then begin tell Google that look, stop that
- 32:31roughly. I didn't like that picture.
- 32:33I'm not the one who took that picture.
- 32:35That picture doesn't put me in the right light.
- 32:37Delete that thing. So it's going to be a while
- 32:40before this thing which is America and which is Nigeria,
- 32:43but who knows, maybe one day we'll get there then.
- 32:48So curate information is out there.
- 32:49Start deleting things, start restricting your profiles,
- 32:52especially things in the Facebook family.
- 32:54You can restrict your profiles, you can restrict your Facebook,
- 32:58you can restrict your Instagram. I don't know about Tiktok.
- 33:01Then as a general rule going forward, personal information,
- 33:05do not put personal information out there.
- 33:07I don't put my personal information out there.
- 33:10I talk a lot, you guys know I'm married.
- 33:12You kind of get a sense of who I am.
- 33:14Some of you can read in between the line and figure out how many
- 33:17kids that I have. But you don't know my wife's
- 33:19name, you don't know where she works.
- 33:20You don't know the number of kids, you don't know the school
- 33:22that I go to. So you know, I'm just being
- 33:24real. I'm you know, I'm flowing with
- 33:26y'all, but I'm not dropping anything personal.
- 33:29So going forward, please don't drop anything personal.
- 33:34There's somebody that I follow on LinkedIn and she's been
- 33:37having issues with, you know, baby daddy.
- 33:39And so she put up information there about how she and even now
- 33:44tagged the guy, put his name about how the guy should honor
- 33:47the agreement of the courts and should drop child support and
- 33:50stuff like that. I know what not.
- 33:51And of course people are healing her and talking trash about the
- 33:54guy. And in my mind, I'm thinking,
- 33:56you know, as a sister, I understand you because it's
- 33:59somehow when you know you and the guy, you thought you were
- 34:02five and six, you thought you were ride or die.
- 34:04The guy has now done you shady, especially since he's in
- 34:07government now because he's not a big boy in government and he's
- 34:10not paying school fees. I understand that school fees is
- 34:12on your back, but The thing is dropping all this thing on on on
- 34:15LinkedIn. Well, you get a lot of support,
- 34:22but ultimately all this crap does not help you if you're a
- 34:24woman trying to project a professional image.
- 34:27Like does everybody need to know that you have baby daddy drama?
- 34:31We're trying to protect project a professional image here on on
- 34:34on LinkedIn. So let's be careful.
- 34:38The things that we put, we put out here, especially since
- 34:42personal things, they trend very well, very, very well.
- 34:46They really, really that kind of thing or personal stuff, it
- 34:49really, really trends or please resist.
- 34:52Do not put personal information out there.
- 34:54That's the reason why I talk on this podcast a lot about
- 34:57educational content. I really think educational
- 34:59content is the best way to go because people will now feel
- 35:03you. They'll feel your area of
- 35:04expertise, your personality ma will even shine through.
- 35:07There's no how you can hide your personality.
- 35:09You're not an actor. Your personality will come out.
- 35:11So don't worry. Stop trying to forcefully
- 35:13project your personality and try to be likable.
- 35:16Just keep making the educational content.
- 35:18After a while, who you are will come out.
- 35:19Like who I am is coming out on the podcast.
- 35:21I can't hide it except if I'm a professional actor.
- 35:26But personal information, stop putting personal information on
- 35:29the Internet. Stop.
- 35:31Please stop bio data, biographical information, please
- 35:38don't put down info on the Internet at all.
- 35:41Date of birth, blah blah blah, all these things.
- 35:45I mean of course you have to put it to get your social media
- 35:47accounts. But these things normally when I
- 35:52open up my Facebook account long time ago they then they used to
- 35:55give option whether you can hide the information or not.
- 35:58Please take that. It is not supposed to be
- 36:00visible. So bio bio data is not supposed
- 36:03to be visible. Nobody needs to know that you
- 36:05are, you know, 6 feet 3 inches and that you were born on the
- 36:091st of January 1972 and none of that bio data, please remove it.
- 36:17Your name, yes, should be there because for business purposes,
- 36:20you know, we're all trying to build businesses here now.
- 36:22So there's no problem with people knowing your name.
- 36:25So your name should be out there.
- 36:27Your career should be out there and your career history because
- 36:30it's important. The projects you've worked on
- 36:33should be there because it's important.
- 36:36Like there's somebody who we're just chatting.
- 36:39He's not a client. What he wants to do is he wants
- 36:41to, he wants to open up a plant to do marine engine oil.
- 36:48He has to produce marine engine oil, but before he does that,
- 36:51he's having it produced in India now so that he can ship it in.
- 36:56And then first of all, test the market to see how the thing
- 36:59moves first before he sets up his plant.
- 37:02So for that kind of person, now your name has to be out there.
- 37:05People need to know who you are and they need to know your
- 37:07career that you graduated from. So, so, so and so university
- 37:10first class in mechanical and liquid something, something
- 37:14engineering. You should be out there.
- 37:17The projects of you've worked on and your career history should
- 37:19be out there. You worked in Shell 1970
- 37:22something to this. You worked on the Red Sea in the
- 37:26UK, 19 days to this dot dot dot. You've worked in Chevron Texaco
- 37:31in America, 19 days to this. This is the thing has to be out
- 37:34there. It's part of the positioning so
- 37:36that people see your career trajectory and they see that
- 37:40you're a pro. They are not a jam bite that you
- 37:42know this thing so that when you finally release this line of
- 37:46engine oil is not as if you are nobody who's just trying, trying
- 37:49their hand. You see that you are a seasoned
- 37:52professional coming into this thing.
- 37:56So these sorts of information, I know it's uncomfortable for some
- 37:59of you, but really we're trying to make money here or trying to
- 38:01build carriers here. Let that kind of information
- 38:04fly. But apart from that, people
- 38:07don't need to know anything else.
- 38:08They don't need to know how many houses you have, whether you're
- 38:11divorced, how many kids you have.
- 38:14Please, in my own opinion, stop. Don't talk about personal
- 38:17issues. Don't.
- 38:20So the more business or career oriented it is, put it out and
- 38:25push it freely. And then you also have to be
- 38:29deliberate now about the content that you produce.
- 38:32Like me, I'm very, very deliberate.
- 38:33Business content. Only the questions that I
- 38:35tackle, I'm very deliberate about that.
- 38:38I don't just put up things anyhow.
- 38:39Anyhow, I don't put up anything on the spur of the moment.
- 38:42We go to parties, we go to class Hangouts, people take pictures,
- 38:45you know, stuff like that. You know, I, OK, I'll send it to
- 38:49everybody because I have no control about who's going to put
- 38:52what on social media. But me by myself.
- 38:54I'm not going to put up any picture of any class hangout or,
- 38:58you know, if you don't believe me, go on Google me.
- 39:04You see lots of information about me.
- 39:05You see one or two pictures of my face, but you're not going to
- 39:08see me in any other context because I'm very, very
- 39:11deliberate about that thing. So be deliberate about it.
- 39:14And this is one of the reasons why I talk about a content
- 39:17strategy or a content calendar. If you don't have a content
- 39:20strategy or a content calendar, you're going to be putting
- 39:22things hit and miss and freestyle and that's where
- 39:25accidents will start happening. No personal thing is going to
- 39:28come up on my content because there's no part in my content
- 39:32calendar where I say today, talk about your family and be more
- 39:35relatable. It's not going to happen.
- 39:38So summary for Dave, don't worry, there's not a problem.
- 39:42You have time, especially since you are young.
- 39:45Go and start restricting profiles.
- 39:47Go and start deleting stuff. It's a hard conversation to have
- 39:52with your babe, especially if your baby is the one that feels
- 39:55as if, you know, if you love me, you will show me off to the
- 39:58whole world. But yeah, you need to have that
- 40:00conversation that you know, babe, you know what?
- 40:02I really, really love you but. I'm worried about the amount of
- 40:05information that I put out there.
- 40:07And, you know, after we get married and we have the kids and
- 40:09everything, there's a certain measure of privacy that I just
- 40:12want. I beg.
- 40:13So babe, you know, to be honest, I love you, but I can't be, you
- 40:18know, WhatsApp status, Instagram staycation photo.
- 40:23Like I really can't do that anymore.
- 40:29And then the other way around too, because sometimes women
- 40:31also have issues because there's some men who are really, really
- 40:33proud. I want to put up everything, you
- 40:34know, my fine wife, my Assam pity, my all and all my this,
- 40:38my, this. So have that conversation with
- 40:39your hobby we had. But they will understand.
- 40:45And then come up with a content calendar so that going forward
- 40:48next week, you're only posting things deliberately that are
- 40:51aligning with a certain kind of strategy.
- 40:54All right, so it's 14 minutes. Let me just bring this to a
- 40:56close. So Dave, if there's a question
- 40:58that I didn't answer, let me know, Send a message.
- 41:02If there any particulars I needed to know before I answer
- 41:04any of the questions, let me know.
- 41:06I'll OK, I will make a follow up episode, but OK, that one you
- 41:11and I will, will, will chat when eventually we have the
- 41:14conversation. So let me see.
- 41:19OK, so that's all. So that's all folks remember, if
- 41:22you'd love to connect with me, then the number to call to SMS
- 41:25or to WhatsApp is 08064662140. So thank you very much for your
- 41:31time and attention. I'll catch you next time.
- 41:33Same place in your headphones or in your speakers.