Latest / Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint / Sales in Naija: Ditch Automation, Embrace Personalization

Transcript

Sales in Naija: Ditch Automation, Embrace Personalization · Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint

• 0:01
  Hello and welcome to the show today.
• 0:03
  The question I'd like to tackle is what tools you can use to
• 0:07
  automate repetitive tasks in sales and in business.
• 0:11
  Better yet, let me just stick to sales because if we say
• 0:14
  business, we're going to open up the door to a host of all kinds
• 0:17
  of things, you know, maybe like accounting software and things
• 0:21
  like that. But I don't want to tackle any
• 0:23
  of those things because it's not my area of specialty.
• 0:26
  So let me just stick to the things that I know.
• 0:29
  So tools that you can help to tools that you can help make
• 0:34
  your life easier when it comes to automating stuff.
• 0:39
  Now, First off, let me tackle the main question, at least the
• 0:43
  one that really, really jabs me whenever we, you know, we're at
• 0:51
  events and things like that and people are talking about
• 0:53
  automation, especially with the advent of AI.
• 0:57
  Now, what I'm about to tell you is a minority opinion, but it's
• 1:02
  my own opinion and I think it's the most, I think it's the best
• 1:06
  most considered opinion at the moment.
• 1:09
  So First off, should we even be automating in the first place?
• 1:12
  In my own opinion, automation is not helpful when it comes to
• 1:15
  sales. Let me repeat what I said again.
• 1:19
  Should we even be automating? In my own opinion, automation is
• 1:23
  not helpful when it comes to sales.
• 1:26
  Now, of course, I know that a bunch of you that would like to
• 1:28
  pick holes in what I've said, So now let me explain the fuller
• 1:30
  context. When I say ultimate, I mean
• 1:34
  technically speaking, when you've set something and then
• 1:37
  you forget it, like what marketing people like to do.
• 1:40
  You know, marketing people like to come up with e-mail
• 1:42
  sequences, you know, promo sequences, things like that.
• 1:45
  They just design it and then they just press play ma'am and
• 1:49
  then they leave it. And then today the first e-mail
• 1:52
  triggers and then you know, next week Wednesday, the next e-mail
• 1:56
  triggers and the thing just go to trigger, trigger, trigger,
• 1:58
  trigger. And I know that for marketing
• 2:02
  people, for e-mail people, this is supposed to be the ultimate
• 2:05
  dream. You know, do all the work on
• 2:07
  January 1st, press play ma'am or press send and then just leave
• 2:13
  it. And then for the rest of the
• 2:14
  year, the thing will just be running on its own.
• 2:17
  So for marketing people, I'm not going to join issues with you.
• 2:21
  You know, that's how you guys like to roll, so let me just
• 2:22
  leave it. But for sales, on the other
• 2:26
  hand, yes, you can take templated approaches.
• 2:32
  In fact, it requires templated approaches because there are
• 2:36
  lots of things that you're going to do, people that you talk to,
• 2:39
  responses that you're going to give that are going to be very
• 2:43
  similar across different contexts and different
• 2:46
  scenarios. However, when it comes to sales,
• 2:49
  there is this thing about personalizing and adapting it to
• 2:53
  the situation and to the person. So for sales, it's a huge turn
• 2:58
  off. When I'm here minding my
• 3:00
  business, I think I have a good flow with the business or
• 3:03
  something. And then I receive a message and
• 3:06
  you know, clearly the message I should have gone to Mrs.
• 3:10
  Ogdenbey, for instance, is the one that shows up on my phone.
• 3:14
  From a sales perspective, you know, when me and the
• 3:17
  salesperson, we seem to be vibing well and I think that my
• 3:19
  business is important to the people, it, it doesn't feel
• 3:23
  pretty good. And these are some of the kind
• 3:25
  of mistakes that can happen when you come up with an automated
• 3:30
  mindset, which is set it and forget it.
• 3:34
  You fail to contextualise things depending on the relationship,
• 3:37
  depending on the context, depending on the scenario.
• 3:40
  And that is the reason why I say that when it comes to sales,
• 3:43
  please do not automate but rather templatize.
• 3:48
  Let me repeat, do not automate, but rather templatize.
• 3:53
  What does templatizing involve? Well, first of all, it involves
• 3:58
  using a template. So let's do what our marketing
• 4:01
  people do, which is we sit down on January 1st and then we
• 4:04
  design everything, you know, design, you know, sharply.
• 4:08
  These are the customers I have. These are the kind of scenarios,
• 4:12
  these are the kind of messages I want to send them, you know,
• 4:15
  happy Christmas, happy Salah or whatever, or follow up messages
• 4:21
  to be sure that people are doing OK and you know, all kinds of
• 4:24
  messages. Sit down and design everything.
• 4:26
  No problem. I'm with you at that level.
• 4:30
  But rather than taking this text, loading it into MailChimp
• 4:35
  or some automating thing and then you just press send and
• 4:38
  then you try and do I think they call it a personalization at
• 4:43
  scale. That's what they call it.
• 4:44
  Or really personalization. Personalization at scale just
• 4:47
  means you're getting the name correct.
• 4:48
  Just to make sure that the e-mail that is supposed to go to
• 4:52
  Tavishima, that's me doesn't show up with dear Misses
• 4:56
  Ogdenbe, you know, as the as the as the greeting.
• 5:01
  So that's what we call personalization at scale.
• 5:03
  Well, however, personalization goes beyond that.
• 5:07
  Now, for those of you who are disciples of marketing, you guys
• 5:13
  do one too many. You're always thinking about how
• 5:15
  you can broadcast, how you can send one message and scale it
• 5:20
  across 1000 people, across a million people.
• 5:22
  You know, that's your thing. But then for those of us who are
• 5:25
  in sales, we take the relationship down a notch.
• 5:29
  I'm usually talking to one or two people, you know, within an
• 5:32
  organization. And when I'm having a
• 5:34
  conversation with someone, I want the person to know that
• 5:38
  they have my own divided attention.
• 5:40
  So whether it's behind the keyboard on them to know that
• 5:43
  look, right now as I'm clacking away and you're pinging back,
• 5:46
  it's you and me. We're involved in a
• 5:48
  conversation. And that's the reason why I
• 5:51
  think automating is not a good idea.
• 5:53
  So templatizing means, yes, sit down, create all those templates
• 5:57
  on January 1st, but then store it somewhere maybe like Google
• 6:02
  Docs or Google Keep or whatever it is that you use Evernote,
• 6:08
  whatever. And then when the time comes,
• 6:11
  and This is why I keep telling people, particularly those of us
• 6:14
  who like working from our phones, because I do everything
• 6:17
  from my from my phone, get an external keyboard.
• 6:21
  Although some people say it's an external keyboard, not
• 6:23
  necessary. Phone screen is too small.
• 6:25
  I'd rather just do what's it called?
• 6:30
  WhatsApp Web? Yeah, WhatsApp Web is where you
• 6:32
  hook up your WhatsApp to your computer.
• 6:34
  And then there's some other things that you can do.
• 6:36
  Like if you have a Google Chromebook, you can sync your
• 6:39
  Chromebook to your phone so that you can do just about everything
• 6:43
  on the keyboard on your Chromebook.
• 6:45
  Anyway, apart from answer calls, I don't think you can answer
• 6:48
  calls on Google Chromebook. But for those of you who have
• 6:52
  Mac computers, yes, you can answer the the phone call from
• 6:56
  your Mac, even though your phone is lying, is lying down in your
• 6:59
  room or you know, whatever, or maybe your wife is using your
• 7:03
  phone to play Candy Crush. You know, you can be doing your
• 7:06
  work over here. The call comes in.
• 7:08
  OK, no, you know what, let me not say that it's been a while
• 7:10
  since I used the Mac, so let me not just scratch that what I
• 7:14
  said. But yes, you can mirror
• 7:19
  depending on what you use. You can use your laptop to
• 7:21
  mirror your phone. And so some people say I'd
• 7:22
  rather just do that instead, but whatever, pick your poison if
• 7:26
  you're going to, if you have a Google Chromebook and you want
• 7:28
  to mirror your phone through that, that's fantastic.
• 7:30
  If you have a MacBook and you want to sync your iPhone to it
• 7:34
  so you can do most of this stuff on it, that's fantastic.
• 7:36
  But if you want to work directly from your phone, just like me,
• 7:38
  get an external keyboard. Now, templatizing means when you
• 7:43
  want to send a message to Mrs. Ogdenbe or you want to send it
• 7:46
  to Mr. Tavishima, what you do is you copy the template and then
• 7:50
  you paste it in the box. Then you edit it the place that
• 7:54
  it says dear customer. You delete customer and you put
• 7:58
  Madam Ogdenbe or you put Mr. Tavishima, but you know,
• 8:01
  personalize it even more. If Tavishima is the kind of guy,
• 8:04
  then when you call him, you say bro, what's up?
• 8:06
  You know, maybe you start the message like that.
• 8:08
  Instead of saying dear customer, you say, bro, what's up?
• 8:11
  And then you continue to tweak. If Mr. Ogden, where is the
• 8:15
  person that when you talk to her in person, you say sister in the
• 8:19
  Lord or mother in the Lord, then you copy and paste the part
• 8:23
  where it says dear customer, delete that.
• 8:25
  And then you type in mother in the Lord, you know, so she sees
• 8:29
  it and she knows that oh, it's you is my people.
• 8:34
  She knows it's not a bot and she knows it's not mass market,
• 8:39
  whatever. And these are the reasons why,
• 8:42
  even though this is more work, I can assure you that you're going
• 8:45
  to get more responses doing things this way.
• 8:48
  So you start off with that whole marketing thing customized at
• 8:51
  scale. So I knock yeah, customization
• 8:53
  at scale. And you know, brah, you send it
• 8:55
  out to 2500 contacts on January 1, and then you're wondering why
• 9:01
  you get a 0.0 point 0.01% response rate.
• 9:05
  You know, this is the reason why because it shows up in Misses
• 9:09
  Wogenenbee's inbox as dear Misses Wogenenbee or something.
• 9:12
  And there's, there's a way you have to keep these things
• 9:15
  generic. And she just knows that it's an
• 9:17
  e-mail blast and said she doesn't bother.
• 9:20
  But then if he shows up in her e-mail or shows up in her
• 9:22
  WhatsApp and it's a dear mother in the Lord, she now knows that,
• 9:26
  oh, is that cheeky fellow that I meet in, in church all the time
• 9:29
  and she can respond, my dear, how are you, blah, blah, blah.
• 9:31
  But this is, you know, a whole lot more work.
• 9:34
  Now when it comes to sales, we are not worried about being
• 9:38
  efficient. Marketers like to be efficient.
• 9:40
  How can I reach 2500 people in one day?
• 9:43
  That's what marketers like to do, sales people, they like to
• 9:47
  be effective. We want to know that if we reach
• 9:50
  out to 200,500 people, no matter how long it takes, we hope that
• 9:54
  we're going to get a huge percentage of those people
• 9:56
  responding to us in return. So let me repeat, marketers or
• 10:01
  people coming at this with a marketing mind view, they like
• 10:05
  to be efficient. Was I able to reach 1000 people,
• 10:11
  2005 500,010 thousand one M the bigger the better.
• 10:16
  If marketer can sit down now and do something on e-mail and reach
• 10:19
  10 million people, they will beat their chest that yeah,
• 10:22
  correct, I did work today. But for sales people who have
• 10:26
  worried about effectiveness, it's not that we reached 10
• 10:29
  million people. Of the 10 million people that we
• 10:31
  reached, how many of them took the next step to do exactly what
• 10:34
  it is that we wanted them to do? So that lasts last, whether it's
• 10:38
  two months, three months, one year, the percentage of them are
• 10:41
  going to end up buying from us. So templatizing, sit down,
• 10:46
  create the template, use your computer, use hook up your
• 10:49
  computer to your phone or use a keyboard just like I do.
• 10:51
  Copy and paste and then edit. You put in the person's name.
• 10:56
  Don't do DSL or DML except if when you talk to the person you
• 11:00
  that's how you refer to the person cell or MA.
• 11:02
  So just blend it, edit it, type it like you normally talk it.
• 11:09
  The whole idea is let them see this thing and know that it is
• 11:12
  from you. It's not a bot, it is not some
• 11:16
  massive e-mail, something. So put the name as you address
• 11:20
  them, put the trap particulars of the transaction, put the
• 11:24
  date. What else is address necessary
• 11:29
  Address might not be necessary, but you, you get the idea.
• 11:32
  You're trying to personalize it with all the details that you've
• 11:35
  gotten from the rapport building phase, the commonality phase of
• 11:39
  the discussion when you guys are early in the relationship.
• 11:41
  And that's also another reason why people know that these
• 11:43
  things are mass market because it's written in a broad general
• 11:47
  sense that can apply to anybody. But when this thing shows up in
• 11:50
  Misses Ogdenbe's phone and it says mother in the Lord, and
• 11:53
  then maybe you make reference to maybe you know that her God, her
• 11:58
  godchildren or her grandchildren are home for the holidays and
• 12:02
  you ask them how are the grandchildren or something.
• 12:04
  She knows that this is not a bot.
• 12:05
  And then this is the kind of thing that you will respond to
• 12:08
  and this is the kind of thing that will help move your thing
• 12:10
  forward. So you see why I say when it
• 12:13
  comes to sales, it's harder, but I really think templatizing is
• 12:17
  the way. Create the template that you
• 12:19
  think will apply to, you know, 80% of your customer base, but
• 12:23
  then you will copy and then you will paste and then you will
• 12:26
  edit it to suit this particular person that you are talking to.
• 12:31
  Because in sales we don't get marks for just doing the work.
• 12:35
  In marketing. If you're able to show that the
• 12:38
  message delivered to 10 million people, you know, your guy will
• 12:40
  say well done, good and faithful servant as a salesperson, your
• 12:45
  guy is not going to be impressed.
• 12:47
  If you say the message went out to 10 million people, but out of
• 12:52
  that 10 million, you know, you didn't get up to 1000 sales,
• 12:54
  your guy is not going to be impressed.
• 12:56
  So different mindset. So create your templates for
• 13:00
  text messages. Let's see what else follow up
• 13:03
  messages. Create templates for product and
• 13:05
  delivery updates. You know the message that says
• 13:07
  thank you very much for your order, It was sent out at so,
• 13:10
  so, so and so expect delivery within seven days.
• 13:12
  If there any problem, call me on so, so, so and so, so for that
• 13:15
  sort of thing instead of sending out the generic, you know,
• 13:18
  message will be nice for me. So getting wait to receive the
• 13:21
  message in a WhatsApp that says mother in the Lord comma.
• 13:26
  Mother in the Lord comma. Thank you very much for
• 13:29
  supporting my business. And OK, now how will I put it?
• 13:34
  OK, Mother in the Lord comma, I really appreciate you supporting
• 13:38
  my business. This is just to let you know
• 13:40
  that the order for your so, so, so and so has been, has been
• 13:46
  recorded. We're sending you by dispatch.
• 13:47
  It should be with you by Wednesday morning.
• 13:50
  So, so, so and so time, you know, that sort of thing and
• 13:54
  then we will see it actually. So thank you very much, my son.
• 13:56
  Well, thank you very much. My daughter, she will reply, but
• 13:58
  if he's one of those mass market something automated, whatever,
• 14:04
  you know, scene, she will see it as per scene and then, you know,
• 14:09
  click off and then that's just it.
• 14:10
  No emotional. What's that word?
• 14:15
  Is it resonance? Is that what I'm looking for?
• 14:17
  No emotional resonance with all the messages that you guys are
• 14:21
  sending back and forth. So create a template, but
• 14:26
  remember to look at the template and then tailor it to the
• 14:28
  particular customer, tailor it to the particular stakeholder,
• 14:32
  tailor it to your associate or to the investor or whoever it is
• 14:35
  that you are communicating with. Even if you insist that you want
• 14:40
  to automate, because I run into people who want to automate now,
• 14:43
  now, now, now, now. Let's let's just automate,
• 14:45
  automate everything. WhatsApp, automate this,
• 14:47
  automate that, automate. Especially now with AI, if you
• 14:54
  want to automate everything, you're going to end up with some
• 14:57
  very, very embarrassing situations.
• 14:59
  And even if you must automate, for the people who insist on
• 15:02
  automating, especially those who was in the SME space, sometimes
• 15:07
  I think you guys are just too early, as in, relax.
• 15:08
  First, make sure you've been in business a couple of years.
• 15:12
  And if you dealt with a few dozen, maybe a few hundred, OK,
• 15:17
  maybe 100 is too much. Make sure you've dealt with
• 15:19
  dozens and dozens of clients and then it would now even give you
• 15:23
  a sense of, OK, these are the groups of people we deal with.
• 15:27
  These are the kind of comma that shows up in the interaction.
• 15:30
  These are the kind of issues that we can anticipate.
• 15:33
  And then you can now start planning effectively and coming
• 15:35
  up with decision trees for everything.
• 15:37
  Because when you want to automate, you have to do
• 15:39
  decision trees algorithms. If the customer says this, then
• 15:43
  do that. If the customer says that, then
• 15:45
  do this. If the customer does this, then
• 15:47
  do that. That's for those who want to
• 15:48
  automate message is you want to use bots.
• 15:51
  So don't start your business like that.
• 15:54
  Do business or small first. Deal with a couple of clients
• 15:57
  first. I don't know how many, but by
• 15:59
  the time you do a few dozen, I don't know, 365070, you now get
• 16:04
  a sense of, OK, typically this is how the conversations go.
• 16:08
  Typically these are the problems that arise and typically these
• 16:11
  are the solutions that work. Now you can use AI and program
• 16:15
  the chat bot to automate this and automate this and automate
• 16:18
  that. However, there are some things
• 16:22
  that can be safely automated, and I have no problem
• 16:27
  recommending that you guys go ahead and automate all that
• 16:30
  stuff. So for social media management
• 16:33
  tools, all those ones can be automated, can be automated very
• 16:36
  well because they require no personalization, they require no
• 16:41
  context. So you take your this buffer,
• 16:45
  this Hoot Suite, the Sprout Social Hoot Suite used to be
• 16:48
  free. And so because of that, I
• 16:50
  thought I'll just, you know, create an account and start
• 16:53
  using Hoot Suite in conjunction with my LinkedIn.
• 16:57
  But apparently now is only paid. So if you are one of those
• 17:01
  people who you know Hoot Suite back when it was free, you just
• 17:05
  assumed it would always be free. I hate to tell you that the
• 17:10
  other option is off the table. So who suite is now paid.
• 17:13
  So buffer, who suite Sprout social, this is CRM tool.
• 17:19
  I user Zoho. There's also Zoho social that
• 17:21
  you can use to schedule stuff. So just use all those things to
• 17:25
  be scheduling your posting. So you carry your contents, you
• 17:28
  put it there, you program the whole thing.
• 17:30
  So that Monday at 8:00 AM Instagram post will just go out.
• 17:34
  Wow. And then Tuesday at 6:45, your
• 17:38
  LinkedIn post will just go out and Wednesday at whatever time
• 17:42
  you schedule. So the, the contents will just
• 17:44
  be flowing like that. Flow, flow, flow, flow, flow.
• 17:46
  And the idea would be that, you know, at the beginning of the
• 17:49
  week or at the beginning of the month, you sit down, you create
• 17:51
  all the content, you load it up into these tools, and then you
• 17:54
  set the time that you want the thing to roll.
• 17:56
  And then you just hit play or hit enter or hit send or hit
• 17:59
  whatever it is that you're supposed to hit.
• 18:01
  And then you just go about and live your life.
• 18:03
  So you can be doing all the normal stuff.
• 18:04
  You do market runs, quarreling with your boyfriend, trying to
• 18:09
  improve your relationship with your spouse, helping the
• 18:11
  children with homework, going for night video, you know,
• 18:15
  whatever. Just believe in your life and
• 18:17
  the content will just be posting on its own.
• 18:19
  Pam, Pam, Pam, Pam. Yeah.
• 18:20
  So for those ones, social media management tools, by all means,
• 18:23
  ultimate no problem there. No, no embarrassing situation
• 18:28
  can can result. Now let me see, OK, this one is
• 18:34
  not really automation. Shah OK, what can we call this
• 18:36
  automation? That's appointment scheduling
• 18:39
  tools. That is where people try to
• 18:43
  automate booking meetings and things like that.
• 18:46
  Because you know, for those of us who are old school minded,
• 18:51
  I'll call you up and I'll say what's up, how far.
• 18:54
  You know, there's this thing with this agenda.
• 18:56
  We haven't done this, done this, done this.
• 18:59
  Are you free? Monday, 8:00 AM.
• 19:01
  Let me just come to the office. Let's let's finish, let's
• 19:03
  finalize this name shop shop. So that's how I like to do it.
• 19:06
  I pick up the phone and I call somebody.
• 19:08
  But now because of online tools, people like to send scheduling
• 19:11
  links like Calendly, there's Acuity Doodle, what?
• 19:17
  Again, all these kinds of things.
• 19:19
  People like to send all those links that whole, yeah, here's
• 19:23
  the link to my, here's a link to my calendar.
• 19:26
  Pick the time that works for you.
• 19:28
  And then the person just picks. And anyway, so people don't have
• 19:31
  to do the back and forth. So yeah, it's it's good using
• 19:39
  those appointment scheduling tools that integrate with your
• 19:44
  calendar so you guys can fix meetings without the back and
• 19:47
  forth. However, and this is where I
• 19:51
  think sales is a contextual thing, I don't think it is a
• 19:54
  good idea in the Nigerian context to use these sorts of
• 19:57
  tools. Because in Nigeria, there's this
• 20:00
  idea of now you define something and if your One is chasing
• 20:06
  something in this context is a bit somehow that I am chasing
• 20:12
  you for the meeting because I want your business, because I
• 20:17
  want you to be my client. And then I'm now sending you
• 20:20
  calendar link and I'm telling you, pick any time that fits
• 20:23
  your, your fancy. It's a bit somehow in this part
• 20:28
  of the world because like I said, in Niger, there's this
• 20:31
  idea of now you define something.
• 20:33
  Now when you are the one who is chasing, you're the one who's
• 20:36
  pursuing. The other person is the valued
• 20:39
  entity. The other person is the babe
• 20:41
  that you're trying to toast. So you can now be trying to
• 20:46
  toast a babe. And you now tell the babe, call
• 20:48
  me, if the babe has sense, she'll look at you, she'll say
• 20:52
  you want me to be your girlfriend and I'm the one that
• 20:54
  I should be calling you. No problem.
• 20:56
  I will call you and then you won't hear from her again.
• 20:59
  So just like with the babe, for those of you who are guys and
• 21:03
  are doing the toasting, doing the chasing, so just like then
• 21:06
  that the onus is on you to pick up the phone and call.
• 21:08
  So it is in business as well. I want the other person to be
• 21:12
  the client. I want the other person to end
• 21:14
  up in the business relationship with me.
• 21:15
  I'm the one who's supposed to be doing the portion.
• 21:17
  I'm the one who's supposed to be doing the chasing.
• 21:19
  So this whole thing of here's my calendar being pick any time
• 21:22
  that works for you. It's a bit somehow we are not
• 21:26
  that modern yet. The I don't want to put it, I
• 21:32
  don't want to say status dynamics or power dynamics or
• 21:37
  the relationship dynamics are not quite there yet.
• 21:42
  So in my own opinion, don't do it.
• 21:44
  However, if the social status is reversed and you are the one
• 21:49
  being sought after now it's a different thing.
• 21:52
  You can use these tools. So if you're chasing after
• 21:55
  Tinumbo or whoever is the president at the time, you're
• 21:58
  listening to this podcast because you want this one
• 22:01
  president, you want that from the president and the president
• 22:03
  says, here's my calendar link. Pick any time that works for you
• 22:06
  that is different. You are the one who is chasing.
• 22:08
  So you know the person, the person wants something now.
• 22:12
  And if you say this is how you're going to get access
• 22:13
  through me, sorry to me by going through this tool, you will go
• 22:18
  ahead and do the thing. So when social status is
• 22:21
  reversed and you're the one who is top dog and everybody's
• 22:23
  trying to chase you and everything be sending out
• 22:26
  calendly link anyhow that Oh, OK, sure, no problem.
• 22:29
  I'll take the meeting. Here's my calendar link.
• 22:31
  Pick whatever works for you. Why don't you reach that stage,
• 22:35
  please? I would strongly recommend.
• 22:38
  Let's not let's let's tap down on the appointment scheduling
• 22:43
  things for now, please Nigerians and I'm talking to Nigerians
• 22:47
  now. I don't know how things work in
• 22:49
  Ghana or how things work in the UK or in the USA or in
• 22:53
  Netherlands, but for Nigerians, we are not at that stage yet.
• 22:58
  You are the one who is chasing after something.
• 23:00
  Don't sit there in the comfort of your office or your house and
• 23:03
  then be sending out currently link, you know, anyhow, pick up
• 23:06
  the phone, call the person and you know chase after the person.
• 23:11
  OK, Are you free Monday at 10? OK, Monday at 10 doesn't work.
• 23:14
  How about this? How about that?
• 23:16
  It's time consuming. But for now, this is Nigeria.
• 23:20
  You're the one who is chasing something.
• 23:21
  Go ahead, go along with it. When you become a big boy, when
• 23:25
  you become Odugu, when you're a big girl and a player in your
• 23:29
  space and then everybody is chasing you, just be sending out
• 23:33
  calendar link anyhow, like OK, here's my calendar link.
• 23:37
  If you see it marked in red, it's not available.
• 23:40
  If you see it in green, it's available.
• 23:42
  Pick any of the times that work in green that work for you.
• 23:45
  So just be patient. The time will come for you guys
• 23:47
  to use appointment scheduling tools.
• 23:51
  Then let's see what else? Automation.
• 23:55
  Automation. OK, I mentioned AI at the top of
• 23:58
  the episode. I had transcription AI tools now
• 24:02
  AI transcription tools. Beautiful.
• 24:03
  Use these ones. That is a wonderful example of
• 24:06
  automation, Auto dot AI. So you take your auto dot AI,
• 24:09
  you hook it up to your Zoom, or you have the auto dot AI running
• 24:14
  on your computer, on the laptop, on your phone while the meeting
• 24:17
  is going on. It's perfect.
• 24:19
  Auto will now just be recording the minutes.
• 24:21
  Pop, pop, pop, pop, pop. You have everything there of,
• 24:25
  you know, who said what, Although I think for Otter, I
• 24:29
  think Otter will say, is it Speaker one?
• 24:31
  Speaker two, Speaker three or something like that.
• 24:33
  I can't remember how it's Otter, but it's one of those tools that
• 24:35
  that's how it it puts it and it consistently matches all those
• 24:39
  things. So later on, you're the one who
• 24:40
  now look at it and know that. Oh, OK.
• 24:42
  Speaker A was when Speaker one was when Mrs. Ogden Ngby was
• 24:45
  talking. So every time I see Speaker One,
• 24:47
  that's Mr. Ogden Ngby. Speaker 2 was when Al Haji Ahmed
• 24:52
  was talking. So every time I see Speaker 2,
• 24:54
  that's Al Haji Ahmed, and then Speaker 3, that was every single
• 24:58
  time that Kemi was talking. And so so every time I see
• 25:04
  speaker three, that's Kemi. Well, this is a perfect example
• 25:07
  about how you can automate open the thing, let you just run in
• 25:09
  the background. I don't know if the feature, I
• 25:15
  don't know how much time you're giving.
• 25:17
  That's if you, if you have the free auto dot AI account,
• 25:21
  because I think for transcribing audio material, you're limited
• 25:24
  to I think one hour every month. I think that's like 90 minutes
• 25:28
  every month. I'll be no, 90 minutes is one
• 25:30
  hour, 30 minutes. Math teacher, please.
• 25:35
  I hope you're not listening to the podcast or by the way, I
• 25:38
  passed my math exams by the way, So where was I?
• 25:43
  So with the free tools, there's a limit on how much time you can
• 25:45
  do for the transcribing, but you're open and let it run in
• 25:47
  the background. This is a perfect example of
• 25:49
  automation and it will save you the stress of having to write
• 25:51
  every single thing down during the meeting.
• 25:54
  Then if you're not done with auto AI, there's a Google
• 25:58
  transcribe. Google Transcribe is wonderful.
• 26:01
  I've heard from some other people in different parts of the
• 26:03
  world that they have to pay for Google Transcribe.
• 26:05
  And I find that strange because here in Niger, it's it's free
• 26:09
  for us. You just whip out your phone,
• 26:11
  it's not downloaded, it's not already on your Android phone.
• 26:16
  So this is one that you have to look for Gemini is on your phone
• 26:19
  already. So no need to look for Gemini.
• 26:21
  But Google transcribe you download it and it's it's quite
• 26:26
  good. I mean Google transcribe knows
• 26:27
  what Nigerians sound like. So just keep talking.
• 26:29
  The thing will keep writing your minutes and your note taking is
• 26:33
  taken care of. So that is one example where I
• 26:36
  think automation that's pretty good.
• 26:39
  So that's my opinion. Basically, remember this is
• 26:42
  really, really limited just to a sales and business development
• 26:45
  perspective. And I say that we should not be
• 26:47
  automating when it comes to sales, but rather we should have
• 26:50
  a templating mindset. Create the template, take the
• 26:53
  time, sit down, create the template and now start editing
• 26:57
  the template according to the different context, to the
• 26:59
  different scenarios, to the different personalities.
• 27:02
  Do that you will get a better response rate and you will get
• 27:06
  better follow through on whatever agenda you're trying to
• 27:09
  push through. But yes, template approach will
• 27:12
  take time because even though it's copy and paste, copy and
• 27:14
  paste actually does take time. And then the editing part does
• 27:18
  take time. So don't worry about efficiency
• 27:20
  for now. Let's worry about effectiveness.
• 27:23
  But you market as yeah, you guys like to reach 1000 people in one
• 27:26
  blast. So continue blasting people
• 27:27
  according to the thousands and 10s of thousands.
• 27:29
  So that's a different department.
• 27:31
  You guys keep doing your thing. I'm talking to sales people.
• 27:33
  Let's do our own thing different then.
• 27:38
  OK, so where you can automate safely all that social media
• 27:43
  scheduling, social media management tools or what not?
• 27:46
  Yeah, use that one. But Please remember as though
• 27:48
  things are posting, posting, posting and people are engaging,
• 27:51
  engaging, engaging, people are commenting, retweeting and all
• 27:55
  those things. Please remember to go in and do
• 28:00
  the hard work of, you know, responding to people's messages.
• 28:04
  Oh, thank you very much for your opinion.
• 28:06
  But actually what I meant was so so so and so well, thank you
• 28:08
  very much for the comment. If you want more information,
• 28:10
  check this link. Or you notice that maybe
• 28:14
  somebody has been re sharing, re sharing, re sharing every single
• 28:17
  post from Monday last week up until now.
• 28:20
  You know, hop into the person's DM and send the person a
• 28:22
  message. Oh, thank you very much.
• 28:24
  I notice you've been re sharing all the content we've been
• 28:27
  posting through last week, especially pieces on this and
• 28:29
  this and that. I appreciate the support.
• 28:31
  I appreciate the whatever, you know, thank you very much.
• 28:35
  That kind of thing. So even though that automation
• 28:37
  thing just is running on its own, you still have to come
• 28:39
  back. Please.
• 28:40
  I'll be doing the manual stuff then what else?
• 28:47
  OK, appointment tools. I've already told you guys,
• 28:49
  appointment tools. Not now.
• 28:51
  We will get there, but not now. Then what else?
• 28:55
  OK, AI transcription tools, 100% go ahead and do that, but just
• 28:59
  bear in mind that the free tools have a limit.
• 29:02
  So if you have Alter AI and you're in the habit of having 4
• 29:05
  hour meetings, just check whether Alter is going to cover
• 29:07
  you for the four hours that you're going to have the
• 29:12
  meeting. So that's it pretty much for
• 29:15
  today. Thank you very much for your
• 29:16
  time and attention. I'll catch you guys in the next
• 29:18
  episode. Connect with me on LinkedIn.
• 29:21
  My name is Tavishima Ayedi. I'm the host of the show.
• 29:24
  The correct spelling to look for.
• 29:28
  You can find it from the link where you're listening to this
• 29:30
  episode. If you're on LinkedIn, that's
• 29:33
  bottom left. You see my name above the title
• 29:38
  then if you're listening to the podcast, you can find that if
• 29:41
  you go to where else about details more depending on which
• 29:49
  podcast player that you use, most likely my e-mail address
• 29:52
  will be there as well. In case you want to reach out by
• 29:54
  e-mail, then you can also connect with me on WhatsApp.
• 29:59
  That's for tips, insights, questions, queries and the phone
• 30:03
  number is 08064662140. The country code is +234 for
• 30:10
  those of you who are not Nigerian.
• 30:12
  So that's it for today. I'll catch you guys tomorrow.