Latest / Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint / The Art of the DM: Selling Smarter, Not Harder

Transcript

The Art of the DM: Selling Smarter, Not Harder · Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint

• 0:01
  Hello and welcome to the show. My name is Tava Shima Ayede, and
• 0:05
  I solve sales and marketing challenges.
• 0:07
  I'm making today's podcast episode in my house, just
• 0:11
  chilling here. So expect to hear some
• 0:12
  interruptions in the background. The goal of this podcast is
• 0:16
  business education. So please spread the word, let
• 0:19
  your friends and family members know, especially people in
• 0:22
  Nigeria and abroad so that they can benefit from the questions
• 0:25
  that we tackle. They can subscribe on Spotify,
• 0:28
  YouTube, Apple or any player of their choice.
• 0:31
  And if you listening right now have any sales and marketing
• 0:34
  questions, bring them to me. You can call, you can SMS or
• 0:38
  WhatsApp me on 08064662140. Now today on the show, OK, I'll
• 0:48
  put this now today only show, we're going to look at how not
• 0:51
  to sell your services on social media DMS.
• 0:55
  For those of you who don't know, DM just means direct messages.
• 0:59
  So we're going to be covering Instagram, WhatsApp, LinkedIn,
• 1:03
  you know, any social media where you can slide into somebody's DM
• 1:07
  and send them a message directly to try and sell your products or
• 1:12
  your services. So let's look at 1 sample
• 1:16
  outreach. It was a message to me.
• 1:19
  I can't remember when I received this one, but I just talked to
• 1:22
  you on my phone. I was like, well, sure, I'll
• 1:23
  come here and make a podcast episode.
• 1:25
  Use that as a case study. I'm not going to read the whole
• 1:29
  message as I usually do. I would just skim it.
• 1:32
  So this message doesn't have to be a long 1.
• 1:35
  So was a message to me and the message was, well, the fellow
• 1:41
  got in touch. Sorry, the lady got in touch and
• 1:44
  she was promising to grow my podcast using 100% organic
• 1:48
  strategies. Funny thing is, what she was now
• 1:51
  proposing actually was not even organic strategies.
• 1:55
  But let's continue. So excuse me.
• 1:58
  So she reached out to me. She promised to grow my podcast
• 2:01
  by using 100% organic strategies.
• 2:03
  And she even came up with specific milestones that she was
• 2:06
  going to hit, and these were 25,000 monthly downloads.
• 2:12
  That's what she was promising. Then she was also promising 125
• 2:17
  star ratings. Oh, by the way, if you're
• 2:19
  listening to this podcast, you've been listening for a
• 2:21
  while, you've never rated this show.
• 2:23
  Can you go and rate this show? Like what are you doing?
• 2:25
  Rate this show? It helps.
• 2:28
  Then she also promised to give to give 10,000 new subscribers
• 2:35
  and 50 written reviews. So she got in touch.
• 2:39
  She said she was going to grow my podcast using 100% organic
• 2:42
  strategies. She was going to guarantee me
• 2:45
  guarantee 25,000 monthly downloads, 125 star ratings and
• 2:51
  then 10,000 new subscribers, also 50 written reviews.
• 2:57
  So the way that she was going to achieve this was by running
• 3:02
  social media advertising campaigns and also by running
• 3:06
  Google and Bing promotions. Now you can see that how I put
• 3:13
  it, it's not really a fault, OK? I guess it's a fault for the
• 3:16
  promotion. Because The thing is, if you are
• 3:20
  going to try and sell someone something, at least you should
• 3:24
  show that you have the knowledge, you have the skill
• 3:28
  set. How I put it, OK, let me just
• 3:31
  put it this way. When the baby reached out to me,
• 3:33
  she said she was going to grow the podcast organically, but
• 3:36
  then she said the way she's going to do it is by doing
• 3:38
  social media advertising and Google promotions.
• 3:42
  Now, by the very definition, if you're going to use advertising
• 3:46
  campaigns, then what you are doing is not organic social
• 3:50
  media growth. Organic social media growth just
• 3:54
  means normal personal dynamics that occur online.
• 3:59
  You put out something, somebody likes it, somebody reads it,
• 4:02
  somebody shares it, somebody comments, you know, just the
• 4:05
  normal dynamics. The moment you try to push
• 4:11
  something, to promote something, to advertise something, what
• 4:17
  you're doing is no longer organic social media growth.
• 4:21
  So what I am doing on the podcast is already organic
• 4:25
  social media growth. Some of you see it, some of you
• 4:27
  like it, some of you shared to your friends, some of you share
• 4:32
  it in your WhatsApp groups. Well, by the way, for those of
• 4:34
  you who promote the podcast that way, I really, really appreciate
• 4:37
  it because I was just chilling one day and then somebody hits
• 4:39
  me up and person is like, Hey, what's up?
• 4:41
  How far how you been? I'm like, I'm good, I'm good.
• 4:45
  A person says, Oh guys, as if you don't arrival, I say arrive,
• 4:48
  how is your podcast now? I say, what do you mean?
• 4:51
  He said, I was chilling in my WhatsApp group and then somebody
• 4:53
  shared this link and I was like, Oh, I know this guy.
• 4:56
  And you know, anyway, so it was nice to see that there are
• 5:00
  people who you see the podcast, you like it, you don't even
• 5:04
  reach out to me. You don't say what's up, but
• 5:05
  you're already promoting the podcast.
• 5:07
  I really, really appreciate that.
• 5:08
  So that is what people mean when they say organic growth Aspire.
• 5:15
  You didn't pay anybody to do something.
• 5:17
  You didn't push for something to happen.
• 5:19
  You didn't try and promote something, you didn't try and
• 5:22
  skew something one way or another.
• 5:24
  That is what organic social media growth is.
• 5:29
  So you have organic on one end and then you have paid on the
• 5:34
  other hand. So the moment somebody says that
• 5:36
  they are paying for something is no longer organic.
• 5:38
  So it's like the babe, she's promising one thing and she
• 5:41
  doesn't even understand the field because she's using the
• 5:45
  wrong terms. And that is a no, no, that's not
• 5:48
  good. So yourself, before you send out
• 5:53
  any outreach, better be sure that you at least understand
• 5:56
  what's going on. Because if somebody, it just
• 6:00
  doesn't look well for somebody who is promising social media
• 6:04
  growth and this and this and that and that, and the person
• 6:06
  doesn't even know the terms, the proper terms, the proper
• 6:11
  categories, you know, things like that, it doesn't make you
• 6:13
  look good, even if truly, truly, truly you can deliver those
• 6:16
  results. So and so that's it.
• 6:19
  She was going to help achieve help me achieve all that using
• 6:22
  social media advertising campaigns and then Google and
• 6:24
  Bing promotions. Now she also threw in there some
• 6:27
  other benefits that she was going to have 24/7 customer
• 6:30
  support and have a refund policy and all that.
• 6:33
  Sorry 1 moment. OK, sorry about that.
• 6:38
  I had to pause the recording because my kids came in and I
• 6:42
  give them an assignment. So they were just let me know
• 6:43
  that they were done with the homework.
• 6:47
  So I was saying, so this babe, she also promised that she was
• 6:49
  going to give me 24/7 customer, 24/7 customer support and refund
• 6:55
  policy. And I thought that was really,
• 6:57
  really interesting because I've not seen any of these social
• 7:00
  media people say you don't have a refund policy.
• 7:02
  Like you pay me, you know, 400K. If you don't see results, give
• 7:06
  me, you know, you take your money back.
• 7:08
  So I thought that was really, really interesting.
• 7:10
  So OK, now let's critique this outreach that I have received.
• 7:16
  Remember, this person reached out promising to grow my podcast
• 7:20
  using 100% organic strategies to achieve 25,000 monthly
• 7:24
  downloads, 125 star ratings, 10,000 new subscribers, 50
• 7:30
  written reviews through social media advertising campaigns,
• 7:33
  Google and Bing promotions. They were also offering 24/7
• 7:37
  customer support. That means even if I need
• 7:40
  something done 1:00 AM, she will answer the phone and then also a
• 7:44
  refund policy. So let's now try and focus on
• 7:47
  what she did right now. First off, I always clap hand
• 7:50
  for anybody who does outreach because outreach is essential
• 7:53
  for business growth. But some people treat it as if
• 7:56
  it's optional. There's some people who decide
• 7:58
  I'm only going to sleep on Instagram, I'm only going to
• 8:00
  sleep on Twitter, I'm only going to sleep on a website, and
• 8:03
  that's the only way that I'm going to move my business.
• 8:05
  Now, at some point, the online thing can take off, but there's
• 8:11
  no business that does not start with outreach.
• 8:14
  Some of you want to shout at me and say what about Amazon?
• 8:16
  Amazon, perfect case. But in the beginning, how does
• 8:19
  Amazon begin? Amazon begins because this guy
• 8:22
  has a nice idea. He has to go and create the
• 8:26
  website. He has to go and raise funds.
• 8:29
  In the very process of raising funds.
• 8:31
  What is my guy Bezos doing? He's driving to somebody's
• 8:35
  office. He's picking up the phone, He's
• 8:37
  going to somebody's house. He's going to somebody's office
• 8:39
  to go and say Otumba, how far I have this idea for this website,
• 8:44
  blah, blah, blah. I think this is all we can
• 8:46
  build. I just need a couple of millions
• 8:48
  or two more. If you can drop like 10 M
• 8:50
  dollars, I'll appreciate it. What do you call that?
• 8:54
  That is outreach. He's going to go and raise funds
• 8:59
  from other people. That is outreach.
• 9:01
  Then you now go on start talking to other people who are going to
• 9:05
  build a website. I'll be using your house and
• 9:07
  people who build website will come and meet you.
• 9:09
  No, you have to go and talk to developers, interview them, you
• 9:14
  know, website people. What else?
• 9:18
  Server space, Storage space, as in you, you see what I'm saying?
• 9:21
  To get Amazon off the ground, there was plenty of outreach
• 9:24
  that had to be done in the beginning.
• 9:27
  And then the first set of people who will host on the site.
• 9:31
  You think you just throw up a site and then people come.
• 9:33
  You also have to do some kind of small, small outreach, talk to
• 9:37
  one or two distributors, you know, stuff like that.
• 9:39
  Now, eventually Bezos, Amazon, them, they would start
• 9:44
  advertising on Google and they would become the biggest
• 9:48
  advertiser on Google for a very long while.
• 9:51
  And yes, the online thing will now take off.
• 9:53
  What you can see. That doesn't matter which
• 9:55
  business you call. If I test me, give me any
• 9:58
  business, I'll be able to point exactly and tell you that, look,
• 10:01
  at this very stage, this is where outreach was.
• 10:04
  So lots of us, we need to wake up and start assuming that
• 10:08
  outreach is optional. Outreach is not optional.
• 10:14
  I'm not saying you have to do outreach from the first day of
• 10:16
  business until the very end. Even if you want to build some
• 10:20
  web online conglomerate something, something, something,
• 10:22
  you will still have to do some kind outreach at some stage of
• 10:27
  the business. So people who send out these
• 10:30
  kinds of messages and stuff like that are clap for you because at
• 10:33
  least you know they supposed to outreach.
• 10:37
  And I'm telling you, listening to the podcast right now, in
• 10:40
  case you're one of these people, I want to build on online empire
• 10:44
  digital nomad lifestyle. Something something, something.
• 10:47
  Please stop deceiving yourself. You will have to do outreach at
• 10:51
  some point. If this thing is going to
• 10:52
  succeed, then let's see what else.
• 10:57
  OK, Also have to clap hand for her because she had very clear
• 10:59
  statements about her value. In fact, she was even using
• 11:02
  demonstrable statements of value.
• 11:05
  She was not saying grow it grow as insurance is very specific.
• 11:10
  She said 25 K monthly downloads, 125 star ratings, 10,000 new
• 11:15
  subscribers, 50 written reviews. These are things that can be
• 11:19
  quantified so she's really proud of her stuff she knows she can
• 11:23
  deliver, although left to me shower when people start talking
• 11:26
  like this, you know so so so so thousands of downloads and I'm
• 11:29
  like or more is bots. This baby is going to sell me
• 11:32
  bots. So just kill my kill my podcast
• 11:36
  because at least now, even though my podcast is on a small
• 11:39
  level, at least I know that you people listening you listening
• 11:43
  to the podcast right now. I know you're real.
• 11:45
  I know you're not a bot because I get the messages.
• 11:49
  You guys reach out to me on WhatsApp.
• 11:51
  You guys reach out to me on LinkedIn.
• 11:56
  So yes, the downloads are not much since I started up to now,
• 11:59
  we're still at 30. I think it's 3333, thirty, 4000
• 12:04
  downloads. So, you know, it's not big, but
• 12:06
  at least I know you guys are real and I value that rather
• 12:09
  than someone promising certain, you know, thousands of downloads
• 12:15
  and all that. You're not sure which one is
• 12:17
  human being, which one is bot activity and stuff like that.
• 12:21
  So where was I? So, yeah, so that's the good
• 12:24
  thing that she did. Clear value statements.
• 12:27
  Very, very clear. And that power is good.
• 12:29
  So that she's doing outreach to promote her business.
• 12:32
  We give her top Marks and that she's giving very clear
• 12:35
  statements about the value she can provide.
• 12:37
  We give her top marks. Now, what are the things that
• 12:40
  she did wrong? For those of you who've been
• 12:42
  listening to the podcast by the length of time, you already know
• 12:45
  the first thing I'm going to say.
• 12:46
  The message was too long. The only reason why I read the
• 12:50
  message message from beginning to end is because I want to use
• 12:53
  it as a case study over here. Any other person, any other
• 12:58
  person did not read it. Remember what I keep telling you
• 13:01
  guys, take the message. Some of you work on your laptop,
• 13:05
  take the message, send it to your phone, open it on your
• 13:07
  phone screen. If you have to flick more than
• 13:10
  twice to read the message, your message is too long.
• 13:13
  Most people are consuming on the phone.
• 13:15
  When I was reading out this whole thing, clearly you can see
• 13:18
  that her message was multiple flicks, too many flicks.
• 13:23
  In fact, for me, I prefer that whatever outreach you're doing,
• 13:27
  the person should just be able to open it on the phone and not
• 13:31
  flick at all. Everything should just contain
• 13:34
  inside one screen. Let them see it and digest and
• 13:37
  understand. I know whether they're
• 13:39
  interested or not, whether they're going forward or not.
• 13:42
  So the message was too long. So if you're going to do
• 13:46
  outreach, you want to slide into somebody's DM on Instagram or
• 13:50
  WhatsApp or LinkedIn on Twitter, keep the messages short.
• 13:58
  Then one problem she made and one reason why I wanted to make
• 14:01
  today's podcast episode was she made too many assumptions.
• 14:07
  A lot of us who are trying to do outreach using people, sliding
• 14:12
  into people's DM on WhatsApp, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter,
• 14:15
  whatever, we assume that the people already want what we have
• 14:21
  for sale. That is a big assumption.
• 14:25
  You need to test that assumption because how I put it, there's
• 14:36
  lots of talk about how this kind of outreach is ineffective
• 14:41
  because you send out a million messages and maybe only 20
• 14:44
  people respond. The problem is not with the
• 14:48
  method per SE, but the problem is with you because you are
• 14:52
  assuming and you're not targeting, right?
• 14:54
  And you're not testing your assumptions.
• 14:56
  You're sending a million messages to people who are never
• 14:58
  interested in the first place, and that is the problem.
• 15:01
  So let's look at the assumptions that she brought to her message.
• 15:04
  Number one, she assumed that I want to grow my podcast.
• 15:07
  Yes, I do, but there are lots of podcasters who are perfectly
• 15:11
  happy with the way the podcast is at the moment.
• 15:14
  It's not every single body who wants to grow the podcast.
• 15:17
  Then she also assumed that I want organic growth, even though
• 15:22
  for her, her understanding of organic growth is not correct.
• 15:24
  But you can see those are two key things.
• 15:27
  She assumed I want to grow my podcast and that I want organic
• 15:31
  growth. It is an assumption.
• 15:34
  When you're reaching out to someone who is a podcaster the
• 15:36
  first time and you're selling these sorts of services, you
• 15:38
  should be confirming do they want to grow their podcast?
• 15:41
  Because not everybody does. Some people have small podcasts
• 15:45
  and they like it. Some people deliberately want to
• 15:48
  keep it small. Then there are some people who
• 15:53
  want to grow their podcasts but who don't want to do organic,
• 15:56
  they want to do paid. So if you're offering organic
• 16:01
  growth services, even though what she's really offering is
• 16:05
  not organic growth services. But The thing is, if truly,
• 16:07
  truly offering organic growth services and you're sending your
• 16:09
  message to people who are looking for paid and AD placed
• 16:14
  growth opportunities, you can see how you will be wasting your
• 16:16
  time and lots of people will not be answering.
• 16:19
  So don't assume when you reach out to people you should ask.
• 16:23
  Another problem was that this message was talking at me, was
• 16:27
  not having a conversation with me.
• 16:31
  Excuse me, I've been pointing out time and time again on the
• 16:33
  podcast that you should think of sales as a conversation.
• 16:38
  It is only when you are engaged in a conversation with someone
• 16:41
  that you have a chance to actually convince somebody or to
• 16:44
  build rapport with somebody or to get to figure out who they
• 16:46
  are or what they want or things like that.
• 16:48
  It's only when there's back and forth, it's only when there's an
• 16:50
  exchange that you can get some, you know, get these dynamics
• 16:54
  going. So stop doing outreach and stop
• 16:58
  talking at people. At no point did she expect me to
• 17:03
  respond. It was a matter of good morning.
• 17:07
  This is what I do. This is why I'm the best.
• 17:09
  If you're interested, click on this link.
• 17:14
  That crap doesn't work. Well, it works, but you're not
• 17:20
  going to get the kind of results that you're looking for.
• 17:23
  So what she should have done was she should have kept this thing
• 17:26
  conversational and the first thing was to have confirmed
• 17:31
  whether I was even interested and then built You should have
• 17:37
  built up a cadence of multiple messages moving me along in the
• 17:43
  sales relationship or in the business conversation.
• 17:47
  So the first message should have been something should have been
• 17:49
  simple. Hi, are you the host of blah,
• 17:51
  blah, blah? Am I chatting with Avishi?
• 17:52
  My idea, the host of this dot dot dot dot podcast question
• 17:55
  mark send. That's all Because remember, I'm
• 18:02
  talking about assumptions. Sometimes you get the e-mail
• 18:05
  addresses wrong, sometimes I receive messages and this
• 18:07
  message clearly was not for me. So the person will respond, yes
• 18:11
  I am. How can I help now?
• 18:13
  Can you see you are getting some conversation going?
• 18:17
  I say A, you say BI, say C, you say D.
• 18:21
  That is how you get this thing going.
• 18:23
  You build rapport, you build a relationship, you pull someone
• 18:26
  in. You're looking for an
• 18:27
  opportunity to start a conversation.
• 18:28
  So message 1. Hi, are you are you tarvishing
• 18:30
  my area? Host of that other podcast sent
• 18:34
  person says yes, how can I help? Now a little bit of flattery.
• 18:39
  It's not bad, not because you must slaughter everybody, but
• 18:43
  The thing is, when you start talking about the other person,
• 18:45
  you give the other person the impression that your outreach is
• 18:49
  tailored to them and is relevant to them.
• 18:52
  It gets people reading, gets people listening.
• 18:54
  It gets people consuming. So next, your message.
• 18:58
  Oh, I love your podcast, especially episodes.
• 19:00
  So, so and so. And I like the fact that I've
• 19:02
  seen you grow from this, this, this to that, that that.
• 19:06
  Then she will now ask the question, Are you currently
• 19:09
  looking for more ways to grow your podcast?
• 19:11
  Question mark, send. Some people will ignore.
• 19:16
  Don't worry. For the people that respond, you
• 19:18
  can see you are now engaging in the conversation.
• 19:21
  You now know that OK, this person truly, truly, they want
• 19:23
  to grow their podcast and you continue the conversation from
• 19:27
  there. You want to grow your podcast?
• 19:31
  Oh, OK. What kind of growth are you
• 19:33
  looking for? Are you looking for new
• 19:35
  segments? Are you looking for new numbers?
• 19:37
  Are you looking for downloads? Are you looking for, you know,
• 19:40
  what are you trying to optimize around growth?
• 19:42
  What are your business goals? You ask all these questions
• 19:44
  first. It is when you now get all the
• 19:47
  information, you now give your pitch and now say OK, I promise
• 19:51
  you 25,000 monthly downloads. Like what if the person you're
• 19:56
  sending this message to already has like 250 monthly 1000
• 20:00
  downloads? You can see that your messages
• 20:02
  are no value. Some of you will say how, but
• 20:07
  trust me, they're Nigerians who are putting up those numbers.
• 20:09
  Like my friend Randy who runs the Young God podcast, he got
• 20:15
  the also called ZD platform by the listed from Spotify.
• 20:18
  By the time they de platform him, Rodney had done 30 million
• 20:22
  in downloads and I repeat 30 million in downloads.
• 20:27
  So for somebody like Rodney now receiving this thing 25,000
• 20:30
  monthly downloads, you know is is down is not his problem.
• 20:36
  So some way we should stop making assumptions, try and
• 20:38
  engage in conversations with people when we're sliding to
• 20:41
  their DM, figure out who it is we're talking to, figure out
• 20:43
  what their problem is. We'll now know what it is that
• 20:45
  we're going to pitch. So for someone like Rodney,
• 20:48
  who's already doing 30 million downloads, the conversation
• 20:53
  you're having with him will be different.
• 20:55
  He's clearly not looking for another 25,000 monthly
• 20:58
  downloads. He's probably trying to optimize
• 21:00
  for something else. And by the way, that's also one
• 21:03
  of the assumptions that too many, all these people make.
• 21:06
  They reach out to me, they want me to grow my podcast.
• 21:08
  They assume that I want to increase downloads.
• 21:10
  For me, the key metric is not downloads.
• 21:12
  For me, the key metric is how many coaching engagements and
• 21:15
  how many speaking engagements am I getting from the podcast.
• 21:18
  That is why I've never really bothered about how large the
• 21:22
  podcast grows because for me, I'm trying to track on a monthly
• 21:26
  how many coaching engagements am I getting?
• 21:28
  How many consulting engagements am I getting?
• 21:30
  How many speaking engagements am I getting?
• 21:32
  That is what I use to track the growth of the podcast.
• 21:36
  But because none of these people ever ask, they will never know.
• 21:41
  And that's the reason why I will never click on the link and I'll
• 21:43
  never call them back because their sales pitch is relevant to
• 21:46
  me. A lot of you are making that
• 21:48
  same mistake. You're sending sales pitches out
• 21:50
  to people and it is irrelevant to them.
• 21:52
  That's why they will never click.
• 21:53
  They will never call. They will never buy and it will
• 21:56
  never be relevant to them because you're trying to talk at
• 21:58
  them. You're not trying to engage them
• 22:00
  in a conversation and figure out who is this person that I'm
• 22:02
  talking to? What are they trying to do?
• 22:04
  How are they trying to grow? What is the vision that they're
• 22:07
  chasing? Based on this info I've now
• 22:11
  collected, I now know the kind of effective sales pitch to now
• 22:14
  make for their business. So all these things are
• 22:17
  important and that's the reason why I'm making today's podcast
• 22:21
  episode. If you're sliding into people's
• 22:23
  DMS and you think or more this DM thing is not working, the
• 22:27
  problem is not the DM strategy. The problem is you.
• 22:31
  You are not doing the DM strategy right.
• 22:36
  So listen to this podcast episode again.
• 22:39
  Apart from that, there's ChatGPT, there's Google.
• 22:41
  You can go and research ways to make your outreach more
• 22:44
  effective, but please stop trying to talk at people.
• 22:48
  Get the mindset that you're going to have a sequence of
• 22:50
  messages and that you're trying to draw someone into a
• 22:53
  conversation where you figure out what they need or where
• 22:57
  they're planning to. You know, where they're where
• 23:00
  they're planning to go to or how they're planning to grow or
• 23:02
  whatever what the problem is, it is only then that you can make
• 23:09
  an effective proposal. You didn't know who you're
• 23:13
  talking to before. You can make a powerful sales
• 23:15
  pitch. Stop assuming that you know what
• 23:18
  the person already wants. So that's all for today, folks.
• 23:21
  Remember, if you have sales and marketing questions, bring them
• 23:23
  to me. You can call, you can SMS, you
• 23:25
  can WhatsApp me on 08064662140. Yeah, that's it.
• 23:32
  Thank you very much for your time and attention.
• 23:33
  I'll catch you at the next episode.