Latest / Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint / Less is More: The Power of Targeted Marketing at Networking Events

Transcript

Less is More: The Power of Targeted Marketing at Networking Events · Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint

• 0:02
  Hello and welcome to the show. Today is a freestyle session and
• 0:08
  it's me just reminiscing about something that happened a while
• 0:11
  ago, maybe 2-3 months back now. I was giving a live session on
• 0:17
  how to start your business in three easy steps.
• 0:20
  This was a partnership between me and Avon Tech Hub.
• 0:24
  It's one of these business incubators in Abuja.
• 0:29
  And so they were taking a couple of people from the e-mail list
• 0:32
  and then we're running them through how to start your
• 0:35
  business idea. At least that was the whole
• 0:38
  point of the session. We assumed that there's still a
• 0:41
  couple of people out there who want to start a business but who
• 0:45
  don't know how. So that was the whole point of
• 0:47
  the training session. But something interesting
• 0:50
  happened. A lot of the people who showed
• 0:52
  up apparently already had businesses.
• 0:56
  There were like 3 or 4 people who were in the fishery space,
• 1:01
  which was quite a coincidence because that was after the time
• 1:03
  that I had made those podcast episodes about what to do if
• 1:08
  you're going to get into the fisheries business.
• 1:10
  I mean like how I would have handled it if I was going to get
• 1:12
  into the fisheries business because during the Christmas
• 1:17
  holidays, my wife and I, the kids who are back home in
• 1:20
  Makudi, that's the capital of Benue State, and my wife is a
• 1:24
  fish person. My in laws are fish people, my
• 1:26
  mom is a fish person. I don't eat fish.
• 1:29
  And so they just turned out to be a fish fest.
• 1:32
  So today catfish dried, tomorrow catfish fried, next tomorrow
• 1:39
  catfish prepared, You know, that sort of thing turned out to be a
• 1:41
  fish fest. And so I thought it would be a
• 1:43
  nice idea to use some of the principles that we talk about
• 1:46
  over here on the podcast and try and illustrate and show hard one
• 1:50
  would get into the business. So it turned out to be an
• 1:53
  interesting coincidence that the people in the fisheries space
• 1:55
  showed up. Then there was someone who
• 1:58
  wanted to start a business in what's it called?
• 2:03
  I think it's called no, not aquaculture.
• 2:04
  What's it called? Something agriculture.
• 2:09
  That is where you. Well, because normally what
• 2:12
  happens is if you want to farm or you want to plant, you have
• 2:15
  to wait for rainy season. For some crops, you need to wait
• 2:18
  for the dry season and then things like that.
• 2:20
  But then in some parts of the country, particularly up north,
• 2:25
  OK, well, plateau is not N but you know, plateau and above.
• 2:28
  Now, some parts of the country where they're beginning to fool
• 2:30
  around with this sort of thing, is it irrigation, farming or
• 2:33
  something? Well, the whole point is you set
• 2:36
  things up so that water, nutrients, everything is
• 2:40
  available all year round. So in your greenhouse or on your
• 2:43
  plot of land, you're going to be able to grow whatever it is you
• 2:49
  want to grow all year round. So somebody wanted to start that
• 2:52
  business. Then I think there were two or
• 2:54
  three other people in fashion, but you get the gist.
• 2:59
  All the people that were gathered there, let's say 90% of
• 3:02
  them already had their own businesses.
• 3:04
  So it turned out to be an interesting session because I
• 3:06
  came there prepared to talk to people about how to start a
• 3:09
  business, but then only delving into business challenges for
• 3:13
  people who already had businesses.
• 3:15
  Now there's one person in particular who was there and I
• 3:18
  could tell that she wasn't there because she wanted to start a
• 3:21
  business or she already had a business.
• 3:23
  She looked like a marketer. And after you spend a while in
• 3:29
  these sorts of communities, you sort of figure out how you you
• 3:34
  just kind of figure out, you know, who is who.
• 3:36
  You get a sense of who these people are.
• 3:39
  So she looked like a marketer. Well, of course, before the
• 3:41
  event began, I was engaging everyone, having conversations
• 3:45
  with everyone. It turned out that she indeed
• 3:46
  was a marketer, and I tried to ask about what she does.
• 3:52
  She told me about some of the services and I had already
• 3:54
  figured out that the reason why she was there was because she
• 3:57
  was trying to market our products and our services to
• 4:00
  people who are there. And yes, I'm not going to fault
• 4:05
  her for what she did, because the truth is we need to look for
• 4:08
  ways to draw more business, no matter how we can.
• 4:11
  But I really think that when people come for business
• 4:14
  networking sessions, things like that, I really think it's the
• 4:17
  wrong kind of place to try and do a direct sell or a direct
• 4:21
  pitch for people because you find that when people come
• 4:24
  together for some sort of business engagement, they are
• 4:26
  there for another kind of purpose.
• 4:30
  So the reason why in theory people were there nowaday was
• 4:34
  because they needed to learn how to start their own businesses.
• 4:38
  So you come in to sell your products and services to people
• 4:41
  who are concerned about starting their own businesses.
• 4:44
  I'm sure you can see how it's it's it's not a good job.
• 4:46
  It's going to be very hard for you to have those sorts of
• 4:49
  conversations. Now it turned out that most of
• 4:51
  those people are business owners, but the dynamic is still
• 4:54
  the same. All the people are business
• 4:56
  owners who have come for a business seminar because they're
• 4:59
  trying to learn something or maybe because they're trying to
• 5:02
  sell their own goods or services.
• 5:04
  So you showing up and trying to hawk something on them.
• 5:09
  So excuse me, it's probably not a good idea.
• 5:13
  Sorry. Still recovering from these off
• 5:15
  road. OK.
• 5:17
  So that's one reason why I think it's not a good idea.
• 5:19
  So if you're one of those people, you're a marketer, you
• 5:21
  see that we're a bunch of business people are going to be
• 5:23
  gathered here, let me go to sell my product or my service.
• 5:26
  That is why I don't think it's a good idea.
• 5:30
  The interest is probably not going to be there.
• 5:33
  Now another reason why I think you shouldn't be using these
• 5:36
  kinds of taxes is because it's probably not the best use of
• 5:39
  your time. Because let's face it, we were
• 5:41
  there for the event. The event was scheduled to be
• 5:43
  for two hours. I'm AQ and a kind of person.
• 5:47
  I like question and answers. I like when people challenge me
• 5:49
  on the ideas. This doesn't make sense.
• 5:51
  How do you do this? How will this apply to my
• 5:53
  context? I love those sorts of things.
• 5:56
  So with the Q&A, people asking questions and us trying to flesh
• 6:01
  out things, especially around how you can use artificial
• 6:03
  intelligence to help start your business.
• 6:06
  So in the midst of all that, the program ended up spending three
• 6:09
  hours. Now, let's face it, as a
• 6:11
  marketer, your time is limited. Are you truly going to come to
• 6:14
  an event, sit down there for three hours and only hand out
• 6:17
  your Flyers to maybe 30 or 40 people?
• 6:21
  That is not a good use of your time.
• 6:23
  I think you're better off walking into the streets, going
• 6:27
  to the car park or the bank. You look at all the expensive
• 6:30
  cars and you put your Flyers only on the expensive cars.
• 6:33
  I think that'd be a better way to spend your time, at least.
• 6:36
  If you do that within three hours, you probably would have
• 6:39
  distributed about maybe 200 Flyers. 300 Flyers.
• 6:43
  I mean, who knows how many banks that you can visit.
• 6:46
  So for those of you who are based in Lagos where banks are
• 6:48
  close by, that might not be a bad idea.
• 6:50
  In Abuja, banks are little. How was that word?
• 6:54
  Is it interspaced or whatever? You know, really spread out.
• 6:57
  So trying to get to all the banks to be a problem.
• 7:00
  So I think coming as a marketer trying to disguise yourself in
• 7:05
  this sort of thing to sell your wares, to drop your Flyers,
• 7:09
  probably not a good idea. Your time could better off be
• 7:11
  spent elsewhere. So if you're someone who uses
• 7:17
  uses these kinds of tactics, I these are the reasons why I
• 7:21
  think you should try something else, optimize your time.
• 7:28
  Now there's one more thing, and I think it's the key thing, why
• 7:30
  I wanted to make this podcast episode.
• 7:34
  When we started talking about the services that she was
• 7:37
  representing, it turned out that she was a marketer for a what's
• 7:43
  the word? Should I say conglomerate?
• 7:46
  You know, when you have one business person or one business
• 7:50
  company having a portfolio of companies and products or
• 7:54
  services. So was that kind of situation.
• 7:57
  So technically speaking, it was all one name, like Dangote, for
• 8:01
  instance. Yeah, Dangote, But on that
• 8:02
  Dangote, there's Dangote Cement, there's Dangote Spaghetti,
• 8:07
  There's Dangote juice, there's Dangote transportation, there's
• 8:13
  Dangote and you get the point. These are all desperate things.
• 8:20
  So if you're a marketer and you're trying to use a short run
• 8:24
  approach to market your Dangote products and you want to talk
• 8:28
  about transportation and talk about spaghetti and then cement,
• 8:32
  you know the the the customer base is wide and too varied.
• 8:35
  You're not going to be able to have very focused conversation.
• 8:39
  And when it comes to these sorts of things, if at all you want to
• 8:42
  sell in these sorts of things, you have to be extremely
• 8:44
  targeted about what you're trying to sell, the message that
• 8:47
  you have and who it is that you're going to talk to.
• 8:49
  So this lady came for this event.
• 8:51
  She was going to market her products or services, but then
• 8:54
  she started talking about photography.
• 8:56
  Then she spoke about videography, then she spoke
• 9:00
  about event planning, then after that she spoke about dispatch
• 9:05
  skills. And then after that there was a
• 9:08
  little bit of was it cryptocurrency or something like
• 9:10
  that. Then there was also interviews,
• 9:14
  documentaries, commercials, then there was also drone coverage,
• 9:20
  Then there was also 360° booth. That is that thing where, you
• 9:24
  know, you're standing, you're looking fly and the camera spins
• 9:27
  around you and captures you from every single angle.
• 9:30
  Now some of you might be confused, wondering that, you
• 9:33
  know, I might just making stuff up, you know, really I'm not.
• 9:35
  I'm actually holding the Flyers right now and looking through
• 9:38
  them and we're not done. So there's a list of OK, OK, so
• 9:45
  turns out we're done. But you see what it is that I'm
• 9:47
  trying to say. You're coming to the event, you
• 9:49
  want to market some products or services, but then you don't
• 9:52
  even have a clear idea of who it is you're going to talk to or
• 9:56
  what it is that you're going to sell.
• 9:57
  Instead, when you engage someone, you're going to try and
• 10:01
  talk about photo photography, videography, dispatch, skills,
• 10:06
  cryptocurrency documentaries, commercials, drone coverage,
• 10:11
  360° booth. Now let's face it, when you have
• 10:16
  that kind of marketing message that is garbled, how do you
• 10:19
  think you are going to be effective in getting someone to
• 10:21
  buy? You've just gone there with a
• 10:23
  shopping list and telling everybody this is what is on my
• 10:26
  shopping list and you expect to make a sale.
• 10:28
  That's not how it's not going to work that way.
• 10:30
  You're better off coming sitting at the event.
• 10:33
  Try and read the room, OK? Is this mostly a singles crowd
• 10:38
  or is this mostly a a crypto crowd or whatever?
• 10:42
  You read the room and then you blend accordingly.
• 10:45
  So if you came for the business seminar, you're a marketer, you
• 10:48
  want to market your products or services and it looks like
• 10:50
  everybody here is a tech bro or a Texas or a cryptocurrency
• 10:54
  bunch, Then what you do is you forget all these other things
• 10:58
  and only and start the conversation on the crypto
• 11:03
  Flyers and then see how things go.
• 11:06
  In fact, I actually think that the best thing to have the lady
• 11:08
  should have done actually was to show up and to try and use this
• 11:12
  as a lead gathering exercise. So she should have showed up,
• 11:17
  maybe been a part of the seminar or maybe not.
• 11:19
  But she should have engaged in conversation with as many people
• 11:23
  as possible and collected the phone numbers of as many people
• 11:27
  as possible so that the day after she can now follow up in
• 11:31
  much more detailed business conversations.
• 11:33
  And I think that that's a better way to go about it.
• 11:36
  That way, in the phone conversations or the SMSS or the
• 11:39
  WhatsApp messages that will follow with people the day after
• 11:42
  the event, she's going to be able to extremely be extremely
• 11:45
  targeted for the crypto person. She will talk about crypto
• 11:48
  products for the lady who is single.
• 11:51
  She will talk about wedding photography for the guy who is
• 11:53
  just engaged. She will talk about videography,
• 11:57
  what else? For the person who's looking for
• 11:59
  extra income. She will talk about dispatch
• 12:02
  driving opportunities and then on and on and on.
• 12:05
  So bottom line, the reason why I'm trying, why I'm making this
• 12:09
  episode is we're still fresh in 2024.
• 12:14
  OK, Well, not fresh. We are in April.
• 12:16
  OK, So that's four months. OK.
• 12:17
  It's it's becoming stale, but there's still those of you who
• 12:21
  are interested in business education, those sorts of
• 12:23
  things. You're going to be going to
• 12:24
  events. But please, I'm just trying to
• 12:26
  let you guys know you want to be effective at sales and
• 12:29
  marketing. I really don't think when people
• 12:31
  show up for a networking session or business sessions, things
• 12:37
  like that. I really don't think that's the
• 12:39
  best time for you to go around trying to sell your products or
• 12:42
  your services. And then plus, let's face it,
• 12:45
  your city, it's a small city. I mean, no matter how big it is,
• 12:49
  it's a small city. So Abuja is big, roughly.
• 12:52
  Well, they say 30 million people.
• 12:54
  I don't know how true that is, but let's face it, there are not
• 12:56
  too many tech UPS in Abuja and tech up people kind of hang out
• 13:01
  in the same circles. If this is what you do, go for
• 13:04
  the seminar, try and steal contact sheets or try and market
• 13:08
  or whatever. After a while, you know, people
• 13:10
  know you and they avoid you. It's like, oh, that Lady that
• 13:13
  came last time. Oh, she has come again.
• 13:15
  OK, is that crypto girl. She has come again.
• 13:17
  And there might be some venues where they might actually deny
• 13:21
  you. What's the word?
• 13:24
  Deny you entry. So it's a small crowd.
• 13:28
  Don't poison your reputation. If you want to sell, you want to
• 13:32
  do your marketing gig. You know we can't begrudge you
• 13:36
  because you have to make a living.
• 13:37
  That's the reason why your boss pays you as a marketer.
• 13:41
  Sit down. Give it some thought.
• 13:42
  Don't just approach every single crowd.
• 13:44
  Approach the crowds that you think gives you the best
• 13:47
  opportunity to find people who might be interested in what it
• 13:50
  is that you have to sell and what it is in your product or
• 13:55
  your services. Try and figure out the right
• 13:57
  crowd, show up in front of them and try and maximize your time
• 14:01
  and your opportunities. But sitting down in a three
• 14:03
  hour, 4 hour seminar only to hand out 40 or 50 pamphlets?
• 14:08
  That's not the the best way to use your time.
• 14:12
  But even if you still want to try these tactics, please don't
• 14:15
  show up and then start talking about photography, videography,
• 14:20
  dispatch, driving, cryptocurrency, documentaries,
• 14:26
  commercials, drone coverage, 360° booth.
• 14:30
  It it's it's a bit much, you know.
• 14:32
  Try and be smart and pick one, have a little conversations or
• 14:36
  another thing. I'm at the end of it.
• 14:38
  On one of the Flyers there were 121234.
• 14:43
  This is 4567. Are these different phone
• 14:47
  numbers? OK, seven.
• 14:48
  I'm counting the phone numbers here.
• 14:50
  So these are 7 phone numbers. Then let's see 48748, nine, 8-9
• 15:00
  and then three more. Is this 89?
• 15:03
  OK, yes, nine. So you are 9 phone numbers on
• 15:06
  it. Whenever we have a call to
• 15:08
  action and we're trying to get people to take the next step,
• 15:10
  please and please and please limit the number of options that
• 15:14
  you have. Chances are studies have shown
• 15:17
  in America and in the US anyway, chances are that if you also
• 15:20
  want to take an action and you give them too many options,
• 15:23
  people are not likely to take either one.
• 15:26
  So if your call to action is. If you're interested in any of
• 15:29
  these, here are these nine phone numbers.
• 15:31
  Call any of these nine phone numbers.
• 15:33
  That is not a good call to action.
• 15:35
  The most likely saying yeah you're probably better off.
• 15:38
  Look if your if your business orga the person who paid your
• 15:42
  your salary has nine phone numbers then you know it is what
• 15:44
  it is. It has nine phone numbers.
• 15:46
  But in that case ask the person what line do you use.
• 15:50
  OK, here are two Econet. I'm sorry, not Econet.
• 15:53
  Econet no longer exists 9 mobile.
• 15:56
  Here are two nine mobile numbers.
• 15:58
  You can call either of these ones if you're interested or you
• 16:00
  can call to book an appointment or whatever you hand the person.
• 16:03
  2 phone numbers, 1234 numbers, That's OK Don't wrap up these
• 16:07
  conversations and then hand people the list of nine phone
• 16:10
  numbers and say and pick whatever it is that you want.
• 16:13
  So for call to actions, limit them.
• 16:18
  So this whole thing of multiple Flyers, total 9 phone numbers
• 16:25
  and all that. Please don't do that.
• 16:28
  Just the more tailored you can, the better.
• 16:31
  So she was having a conversation with me.
• 16:34
  A couple of people were also listening.
• 16:36
  It wouldn't have been a problem to say are you interested in
• 16:39
  finding more, finding out more. And if I said yes, I was It's
• 16:42
  not a problem asking or what line do you use?
• 16:44
  OK, MTN, OK, why don't you call this number?
• 16:47
  You take a viral and you draw a line underneath it.
• 16:50
  Trap, say this is an MTN number, Call it.
• 16:52
  Somebody will respond to you right away.
• 16:55
  You have made it easier. There is going to be no decision
• 16:59
  fatigue because the next day after the seminar, if I'm
• 17:01
  curious about crypto and I want to call, all I have to do is
• 17:04
  pick up that flyer. There are 9 phone numbers there,
• 17:07
  but the phone number I'm supposed to call, she underlined
• 17:10
  it sharply and I will call that number.
• 17:13
  So that's how it works. So thank you very much for your
• 17:15
  time and attention. Sorry this episode was a little
• 17:18
  bit rambly. I know there was a lot that we
• 17:20
  had to touch up and touch on, but I just want to let you guys
• 17:23
  know because I see people coming and trying to sell like this.
• 17:28
  I hope you're not. But if you still decide that you
• 17:31
  must sell that these sorts of things, then sure, no problem.
• 17:34
  Just rewind this episode, start from the beginning, make some
• 17:37
  notes, and then adopt your process accordingly.
• 17:42
  So thanks for your time and attention.
• 17:44
  Connect with me on WhatsApp. My name is Tavishima Ayede.
• 17:47
  I'm the host of the show. You can confirm the spelling of
• 17:50
  my name and my e-mail address from the link We're currently
• 17:52
  listening to this episode. Also, connect with me on
• 17:55
  WhatsApp. I'd love to hear from you guys,
• 17:57
  especially when you have questions or you want to say I
• 18:00
  agree with this, I disagree with this.
• 18:02
  Can you explain this some more or how do you apply this to my
• 18:05
  own context? I like getting those kinds of
• 18:07
  questions. So the phone number is
• 18:08
  08064662140. The country code is +234 if
• 18:16
  you're not Nigerian, so I prefer WhatsApp.
• 18:19
  I'm still on Telegram, but to be honest, I check my Telegram
• 18:22
  maybe once every two weeks. But if you send me a WhatsApp
• 18:25
  today, I definitely will respond.
• 18:27
  You know, latest tomorrow evening, so thanks for your time
• 18:30
  and attention. I'll catch you guys at the next
• 18:32
  episode.