Latest / Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint / Listen, Engage, Close: The Social Selling Formula for Hat Businesses

Transcript

Listen, Engage, Close: The Social Selling Formula for Hat Businesses · Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint

• 0:00
  Hello, and welcome to the podcast.
• 0:03
  I'm currently chilling at my desk making this recording.
• 0:06
  And some of the neighborhood kids are around, you know,
• 0:08
  they're teenagers. So right now they're just a
• 0:10
  bunch of juveniles. And you know how those boys,
• 0:12
  Gambino, you know, you're just discovering what it means to be
• 0:15
  a man, you know, in your own way of seeing the world.
• 0:18
  So they just, you know, come out every evening, you know, shoot
• 0:22
  this shit, just pram you late and just generally even what
• 0:26
  teenagers do. So if you hear any gisting, any
• 0:29
  laughing, you know, that's them. That's the teenagers in the
• 0:31
  background. And yeah, of course, the kids
• 0:33
  are home too. So you might hear some noise
• 0:35
  from there. Now today I want us to look at
• 0:38
  social selling and how to use it to promote your business.
• 0:42
  Now, some of you may have heard of social selling in the past.
• 0:45
  Maybe you heard it like 2-3 years ago.
• 0:48
  You definitely have not heard of it on the podcast.
• 0:50
  And to be honest, it's not something that I'm a fan of.
• 0:54
  I don't talk about it because sometimes I think people are
• 0:58
  looking for any excuse not to do any selling.
• 1:01
  People say I don't want to be tacky, I don't want to be pushy,
• 1:04
  I don't want to be an irritant. I don't want to be this, I don't
• 1:07
  want to be that. I don't like selling, you know,
• 1:11
  talking about money makes me feel one kind, blah, blah, blah.
• 1:14
  So I think people are looking for excuses all the time and
• 1:17
  influencers in quotes, you know, business gurus always come up
• 1:21
  with one thing after another thing after another thing to
• 1:24
  give you the excuse that it's OK, that you don't have to talk
• 1:27
  to anybody. You can sit behind the keyboard
• 1:29
  and use this magic, this magic script or this magic prompt or
• 1:33
  this magic whatever, and then money will flow into your
• 1:36
  account. So for those of you who are
• 1:39
  running away from actually having conversations with people
• 1:41
  you want to sit behind the keyboard, my advice to you is,
• 1:45
  well, you know, keyboard game can't work.
• 1:47
  But eventually we always get to the point where we have to talk
• 1:50
  to someone. So we can be doing our sales
• 1:53
  funnel, this hacking, this marketing, this dot dot dot dot.
• 1:58
  But eventually we get to the point where we're either
• 2:01
  chatting with one person face to face, Abby, no, not face to face
• 2:06
  chatting with one person in box or inbox or emailing one person,
• 2:09
  you know, one e-mail to e-mail or somebody picks up the phone
• 2:12
  and calls us. And we had better have the
• 2:14
  requisite skill that we need to be able to handle that
• 2:17
  conversation so that if there's a problem, we resolve the
• 2:20
  problem and we make the person a happy customer.
• 2:23
  And we make sure that they come back and buy from us again.
• 2:26
  Or if there's no problem, but they're unclear about one or two
• 2:29
  things before they transfer the money to us, we make sure that
• 2:32
  we handle those concerns adequately so that they become a
• 2:36
  customer. And we also try to get them to
• 2:38
  come back and also refer business to us in the future,
• 2:41
  bring their friends, their family members and their
• 2:43
  associates. So my own opinion, you can be a
• 2:46
  keyboard warrior all you like, last, last, eventually, one day,
• 2:51
  one day, not one day, you will have to talk to someone.
• 2:54
  So I might as well learn. So social selling, how does it
• 2:58
  fit into all these yarns that I'm just saying right now?
• 3:04
  Done right, social selling does not run away from the fact that
• 3:08
  you have to talk to someone. Social selling just focuses on
• 3:12
  certain kinds of techniques that you can use online to connect
• 3:16
  with people online and to nurture people online, to
• 3:19
  nurture contacts online. You know, do all the sweet stuff
• 3:24
  online, the knowing, the liking and the trusting so that when
• 3:28
  the time comes and somebody slides into your DM or when
• 3:32
  somebody picks up the phone, you can now close the sale
• 3:36
  effectively. So that is what social selling
• 3:39
  is. You're going to be doing a bunch
• 3:41
  of stuff online to connect with people, to nurture
• 3:45
  relationships, to nurture contacts.
• 3:47
  You do plenty, plenty things online, whether it's LinkedIn or
• 3:51
  whether it's Instagram. Social selling is just all those
• 3:54
  techniques and all those skills that you're using to connect
• 3:57
  with people and then to nurture them so that one day when they
• 4:01
  are ready and they slide into the DM.
• 4:03
  Because once it's sliding into your DM, it's no longer an
• 4:05
  online thing again. I mean, well, technically
• 4:07
  speaking it's online, but you know, once they slide into your
• 4:10
  DM, you know it's personal. Now this is me having a chat
• 4:13
  with you. So it's personal.
• 4:15
  You will now be able to close the sale off of the socials, off
• 4:19
  of the network, off of the whatever.
• 4:22
  So from what I've said so far, now social selling, you've seen
• 4:25
  on that the core concepts are relationship building or trust
• 4:30
  and rapport essentially. OK, well and rather not all.
• 4:34
  So you're trying to do relationship building online.
• 4:38
  So let's say you only have an LinkedIn presence like me.
• 4:41
  It will be building relationships with people
• 4:43
  online. I'm trying to establish trust
• 4:46
  and trying to establish rapport. Rapport means we are flowing, we
• 4:50
  are vibing, I know some stuff about you, you know some stuff
• 4:53
  about me, and we feel like we are alike.
• 4:56
  We feel like we did relate. That is what rapport is.
• 5:00
  So yeah, that's all social selling is about.
• 5:05
  How can we use Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, Reddit, what
• 5:11
  else? Everything sharp, but where?
• 5:13
  How can we use all of that to build trust, build rapport, and
• 5:16
  engage in meaningful conversations?
• 5:19
  Now when we say meaning or valuable, there's something I've
• 5:23
  said on the podcast. I should not have to repeat it,
• 5:24
  but I will because there's some people who are here for the
• 5:26
  first time. Valuable, value, driven value,
• 5:31
  whatever just means you're giving helpful information and
• 5:35
  you are addressing the needs that your audience has.
• 5:41
  So when you're going online to say I am the greatest, I am the
• 5:44
  best, I am the this and the that, that is not valuable.
• 5:50
  In fact, excuse me. In fact, after a while, people
• 5:53
  will tune you out and they will stop listening to you or stop
• 5:55
  reading you or stop liking or tweeting or sharing.
• 5:58
  Because after a while it gets old when all you say is I'm the
• 6:04
  greatest, I'm the best, I'm the this and the that.
• 6:06
  But if you're giving helpful information, if you're trying to
• 6:10
  address their concerns, address their whatever, you know, that
• 6:13
  is why all those posts that say 90% of people who you know, 90%
• 6:18
  of people who do this and this, that and that have social
• 6:21
  problem. Do you have those kinds of
• 6:24
  problems? I mean, that is valuable to a
• 6:27
  particular kind of audience. And of course they'll read it if
• 6:29
  that is a problem that they have.
• 6:32
  So the things that you have to put up on social media have to
• 6:37
  be value driven. And remember, value is not from
• 6:40
  your own point of view, value is from the audience's point of
• 6:43
  view. What it, what is it that they
• 6:45
  like, what it is that they need? What is it that they find to be
• 6:48
  helpful? Then of course, social selling,
• 6:51
  it wouldn't be social selling if you're not using social
• 6:53
  platforms. So when I see people face to
• 6:56
  face or were networking or you go to Abuja trade fair or Lagos
• 7:01
  food and drink fair or a Noogu makeup fair, you know, that's
• 7:06
  not a social selling even though that's excuse me, even though
• 7:11
  that's a social situation. But remember when we're talking
• 7:14
  about social selling, we're talking about social platforms,
• 7:16
  online social platforms. And then you cannot do any
• 7:20
  direct selling online when you do social selling because you
• 7:24
  know, it just comes across as tacky.
• 7:26
  I don't know you, you don't know me.
• 7:27
  This is the first time we're meeting and you're saying I
• 7:30
  should buy headphones from you or I should buy real estate from
• 7:34
  you. As in how, like how do we know
• 7:36
  ourselves? So the whole point is actually
• 7:38
  to engage in conversations and to build relationships online so
• 7:42
  that people love you, they trust you, they have some rapport so
• 7:47
  that later on, if the person slides into your DM to start
• 7:51
  talking about the headphones, you're open to having the open
• 7:53
  to having the conversation with them.
• 7:55
  Or the other way around, if you, the customer slides into the
• 7:58
  person's DM, you guys can now have a fruitful conversation.
• 8:02
  So let us try and apply all this grammar now to the fascinator,
• 8:07
  to the heart and fascinator business.
• 8:09
  Now, the reason why I'm doing heart and fascinator business is
• 8:12
  because the last case study that we did, if I remember correctly,
• 8:16
  was the lady who wants to start a heart and fascinator business.
• 8:20
  And I said to try and Max it out as much as possible.
• 8:24
  I'll continue using her as an example until I come across
• 8:27
  somebody else who has a much more interesting business or a
• 8:32
  business that we've never spoken about on the podcast before,
• 8:34
  because this is the first time we're talking about hats and
• 8:36
  fascinators. So this heart applies to hats
• 8:39
  and fans fascinator business. So if you're going to engage in
• 8:43
  social selling and you're this lady who wants to get into, I
• 8:46
  think her name is Bulu. Yeah, Bulu.
• 8:48
  So if you're Bulu and you want to start your heart and
• 8:50
  fascinator business and you're considering a social selling
• 8:53
  strategy, the first thing you have to do is to define your
• 8:56
  target audience or to define the niche.
• 8:59
  The number one question we have to ask ourselves, who are we
• 9:01
  running after, who they pursue? You have to ask yourself that
• 9:05
  question because the answer to that question, who are we
• 9:08
  pursuing? That is what will determine
• 9:09
  which social media to use. If you are trying to pursue, I
• 9:17
  don't know, Nigerian market women who are fabric traders,
• 9:21
  maybe you should not be on LinkedIn.
• 9:24
  I'm not sure, but my guess is maybe those people don't hang
• 9:27
  out on LinkedIn. I suspect they hang out on
• 9:30
  Facebook and they hang out on what's the other one, Instagram.
• 9:36
  If you're trying to reach out to, I don't know, let's see born
• 9:40
  again teenage, no born again millennials who attend high
• 9:49
  Pentecostal churches or something like that, then maybe
• 9:52
  you should not be on Facebook. Maybe those kind of people spend
• 9:57
  more time on TikTok or on Instagram.
• 9:59
  I don't know. I'm just guessing, but you get
• 10:02
  what I'm trying to say. We need to know what niche are
• 10:05
  we going after or who's the audience we're targeting.
• 10:07
  That is what is going to determine where we're going to
• 10:10
  start running after people so that we can choose the right
• 10:13
  platforms. So since you are like Balu and
• 10:16
  you want to be in the heart and fascinator, excuse me,
• 10:19
  Fascinator business. By the way, if this is your
• 10:21
  first time listening to the show and you're a guy, the fascinator
• 10:24
  is just these fancy caps. So this guy, Diana's bueno.
• 10:31
  Prince, Prince Charles. King Charles, yes.
• 10:33
  Now King of England. So he's his son.
• 10:36
  The first boy is married to what's her name now, Katie.
• 10:39
  Abby. Katie something Katie Winslet
• 10:42
  have it and I can't remember her name.
• 10:46
  So those kind of fancy hats that kids wears.
• 10:49
  You see something when I had like a semi circle, then maybe 1
• 10:53
  Peacock feather and then maybe it has 1 golden sash running
• 10:57
  across it or something like that or maybe a Gray net.
• 11:00
  Those are the things that are fascinate us.
• 11:02
  So it's like their headgear was shy.
• 11:06
  It's not really a hat, but it's kind of a hat.
• 11:09
  You know, it's high fashion. So that's what a fascinator is,
• 11:11
  in case you're a young man listening to this and you're
• 11:13
  wondering what are they talking about?
• 11:16
  So we have to choose the right platform.
• 11:18
  So my guess is that since you're doing hearts of fascinators, is
• 11:21
  this kind of like a visual components with?
• 11:23
  So I think you're probably looking at Instagram, probably
• 11:25
  Pinterest or probably Facebook to start building your community
• 11:28
  and then to start interacting with people because I suspect
• 11:32
  that women went to those sorts of things.
• 11:34
  That is where they hang out. If I'm wrong and you're in the
• 11:37
  business, you know, please let me know that.
• 11:39
  Hey Mr. Tavishima, I actually am in the heart and fascinator
• 11:42
  business and you gave us wrong advice here.
• 11:44
  This is what it should be instead.
• 11:47
  The number to reach me on my WhatsApp number is 08064662140.
• 11:54
  The country code is +234. For those of you who are not
• 11:56
  Nigerian, that's my WhatsApp number.
• 11:58
  So give me any feedback there. Then you also have to create
• 12:03
  quality content so that you can start engaging conversations
• 12:07
  online because if your conversation is not quality,
• 12:10
  people will not like, people will not share, people will not
• 12:12
  comment. So for those of you who've been
• 12:14
  liking and sharing, excuse me, sharing the podcast and
• 12:18
  promoting it on other platforms because I received a screenshot.
• 12:21
  I think like last month somebody was like, yeah, I saw your stuff
• 12:24
  in my community and you know, I was tripped.
• 12:26
  I was mind tripped because from this end, all I see is number of
• 12:29
  downloads and maybe people commenting on Spotify, people
• 12:33
  commenting on YouTube. So it's nice to see me showing,
• 12:36
  showing up another plat. I mean, there's no way I can
• 12:38
  track that Some of you are sharing it in your groups.
• 12:40
  So for those of you who do, I appreciate the love and please
• 12:43
  keep doing that so we can reach more people.
• 12:46
  But bottom line, what I'm saying is you have to create quality
• 12:50
  content if you're in the, if you're starting any business and
• 12:54
  you want to use social selling. So if you're in the heart of
• 12:56
  fascinator business. Now, one thing I want to point
• 12:59
  out, especially since I have my background was in events and I
• 13:03
  used to handle photography and video.
• 13:05
  When a lot of people hear quality content, what they think
• 13:08
  about is equipment. They think about light, they
• 13:11
  think about backdrop, they think about camera that cost like 2.5
• 13:14
  M, you know, all that sort of thing.
• 13:16
  That's what they think about when they think quality or
• 13:18
  production value. Now I'm here to tell you that
• 13:22
  that is not that's not the only thing to think about when it
• 13:27
  comes to equipment, sorry, when it comes to creating quality
• 13:31
  content. So, so long as you pay attention
• 13:34
  to the scripting or the messaging, what am I trying to
• 13:38
  say? What am I trying to say to what
• 13:40
  is the best way to say it? If you pay attention to
• 13:42
  scripting ahead of time, you pay attention to some simple
• 13:47
  lighting and contrast. You know, like if you're going
• 13:49
  to create a video of you wearing a fascinator, but you're
• 13:52
  standing in a dark corner of the room this problem, but at least
• 13:55
  you sit or stand facing the window so that the window light
• 13:58
  is beaming in on your face. You know, that's a good thing.
• 14:01
  So pay attention to lighting in that sense.
• 14:03
  It doesn't have to be fancy. Good lighting is going to give
• 14:06
  you a background. Sorry, contrast.
• 14:08
  You make sure that the background is clean.
• 14:11
  Don't, don't want to record when the children's bathroom towel is
• 14:14
  hanging, you know, at the back, you know, just look for nice
• 14:19
  clean background and then focus more on composition and styling.
• 14:23
  So composition basically just means how do you put yourself in
• 14:27
  the frame? So for those of you who sell
• 14:28
  hats and fascinators, when you open up your phone and you do
• 14:33
  that reverse screen thing and you want to start making a video
• 14:36
  of yourself of your head wearing the hat, you can turn on
• 14:40
  something on the phone. It's called a grid.
• 14:42
  Now what that will do is it's going to put some, it's going to
• 14:45
  put 1234, it's going to put 4 lines across the screen. 2 lines
• 14:50
  are going to come from the top to the bottom and then two other
• 14:54
  lines are going to go from the left to the right at the same
• 14:57
  distance. So what I will do is it's going
• 14:59
  to break up your screen into that's how many now that's nine.
• 15:04
  It's going to break up the screen into 9 segments.
• 15:07
  Now the safest way to do this thing is to carry your face and
• 15:12
  put it in that middle square. Let me repeat what I said.
• 15:16
  When you put on turn grid on your phone, it is going to now
• 15:20
  draw, it's going to draw 2 lines from top to bottom, 2 lines from
• 15:24
  left to right. That will now divide your screen
• 15:27
  into 9 equal parts to be safe. And the most traditional thing
• 15:33
  is to actually put your face, your smiling face, that's your
• 15:37
  eyes, your nose, your mouth. That part must fit inside the
• 15:43
  middle square. So those are just some of these
• 15:46
  basic things I'm talking about. So if it's well lit, you're in
• 15:48
  front of a window, you're receiving good lighting, your
• 15:50
  face is in the middle of that thing, then you know there's
• 15:54
  enough for people to see your facial expression.
• 15:56
  People can see the clean background people, there's
• 15:58
  enough room for people to see the fascinator on your head.
• 16:02
  You've paid attention to descripting or what it is that
• 16:04
  you're going to say or the story.
• 16:06
  So that should help with time. You can buy the million naira
• 16:10
  lights, the 4 million naira camera, and you know all of that
• 16:14
  with time. But for now, you do not need to
• 16:18
  start that way. Then what else?
• 16:22
  OK, Make sure you engage and build relationships online.
• 16:25
  Whenever people respond, whenever people make a comment,
• 16:29
  please respond quickly whenever they make comments or whenever
• 16:32
  they make mentions, which is what I do on the podcast.
• 16:35
  I try to make sure that I respond to everybody that same
• 16:39
  day. If you have made a comment on my
• 16:43
  YouTube channel or you've made a comment on my Spotify, you can
• 16:50
  be a testimony to the fact that I respond to everyone that same
• 16:54
  day. It's easy for now because I'm
• 16:57
  not getting dozens of comments every day.
• 16:59
  I'm at the stage where I'm getting, yeah, you know, maybe
• 17:03
  if it's a busy day, maybe I'll receive 3 comments in a day if
• 17:07
  it's busy, so I can still respond to people.
• 17:10
  But then when the podcast blows up and I have millions of
• 17:12
  Nigerians listening, you know, maybe that might be an issue.
• 17:15
  But for now, I'm responding to people every day and it is part
• 17:18
  of social selling, it is part of building rapport, it is part of
• 17:22
  building trust. And that's the reason why some
• 17:24
  of you feel like you know me, apart from the fact that you're
• 17:27
  listening to what I'm saying right now.
• 17:29
  You make a comment, I respond that day.
• 17:32
  We won't ping two or three times.
• 17:34
  For some people, we even now end up hopping on the phone call.
• 17:37
  You feel as if there's there's some known I can trust there.
• 17:40
  You feel like you know me. That is what makes it easier for
• 17:43
  us to swing into a sales conversation and I can start
• 17:46
  coming up with proposals about how I can help your business.
• 17:51
  Then for social selling, let's see what else.
• 17:55
  OK, I have collaborations. Yeah.
• 17:57
  So you have to collaborate as well.
• 17:58
  If you're in the heart and fascinator business, you have to
• 18:01
  look for other fashion bloggers, fashion stylists, event
• 18:04
  planners. They have to collaborate with
• 18:05
  and put out useful content. Now, there's one skill, I must
• 18:09
  admit I am very, very bad at this, but it's something you
• 18:11
  should do. And that is called social
• 18:13
  listening. Social listening is when you're
• 18:15
  looking at social media and you're just trying to see what's
• 18:18
  going on. You know what's out there.
• 18:20
  You'll be looking at industry trends, maybe even check your
• 18:23
  company name, see how they're mentioning your competition.
• 18:27
  They're just trying to figure out like what's going on in the
• 18:29
  industry. That gives you a sense about,
• 18:31
  you know, where to move, whether to move here, whether to move
• 18:34
  there, whether to be designing like this or to be designing
• 18:36
  like that. As if you're doing social
• 18:38
  listening, social listening. Just open the app and then you
• 18:41
  begin the look or lurk. As people say these days,
• 18:45
  lurking is when you're looking but you're not commenting.
• 18:47
  So you begin the look or you begin the lurk and you're just
• 18:49
  checking what are people saying about me?
• 18:51
  What are people saying about the competition?
• 18:53
  What are people saying about fascinators in general?
• 18:55
  What are people saying about this design?
• 18:57
  That design or talking marking one war fascinator.
• 19:00
  What are people saying? Are they praising it?
• 19:02
  I'll be there blasting her. This person war fascinator, this
• 19:04
  person wore hard. You know, you just look and look
• 19:07
  and look like this lady Iniedo. Oh, by the way, I heard that
• 19:12
  Iniedo has done a has done bum bum job and she has done boob
• 19:17
  job and she has done lip job. That's why I heard though, but I
• 19:19
  haven't seen it anyway. So for those of you who follow
• 19:21
  that kind of thing, you know, let me know if that's true.
• 19:25
  So I had that in your dose. Popsy died down and I saw some
• 19:28
  photos and man, those people really wanted to like take over
• 19:33
  your because sorry if you're from your sorry, forgive me.
• 19:38
  My eye says I'm pronouncing the town name wrong.
• 19:41
  Forgive me, I'll learn the real pronunciation.
• 19:44
  So going to shut down your now and come and see designs like
• 19:49
  Tokyo Mackinwell showed up in a private jet.
• 19:52
  So some people are wearing fascinator or some people are
• 19:54
  wearing Gilly. Some people are wearing
• 19:55
  different things. So you know, this is all part of
• 19:57
  social listening if you're in the business now.
• 20:00
  So in the Edo's father's burial, you will not be looking.
• 20:03
  You will not be checking now. Oh, see the comments, or people
• 20:06
  commenting on her corset, or people commenting on the
• 20:08
  fascinator, or commenting on the Gilly.
• 20:10
  So looking at these things, you just, they listen once in a
• 20:13
  while, just they lurk. You'll now be getting idea, now
• 20:15
  be getting inspiration. You now see what's up, you know
• 20:18
  what's popping, what's hot, what's not.
• 20:20
  You know, these things also inspire you where to move the
• 20:24
  business and what kind of designs to do later on.
• 20:26
  So that's social listening And that's one thing I don't do.
• 20:28
  I don't do social listening because for me I can say and let
• 20:30
  me just come, let me just look Instagram small.
• 20:34
  Before you know it, three hours are passed and I'm on Instagram
• 20:37
  real. What did I do with my life?
• 20:39
  Nothing so that's one reason why I deleted all those apps so
• 20:42
  social listening I don't do but please, you should do it.
• 20:45
  Just exercise some self-control. So you you will say that let me
• 20:49
  just do TikTok small and then you open TikTok at 630.
• 20:53
  Before you know it, you you look up you said that time is now
• 20:56
  1130. You wasted the whole day bath.
• 20:57
  You never bath chop, you never drop and you've, you know,
• 21:01
  ignore the whole host of things you should be doing.
• 21:04
  So OK, I've said a lot. So let me just try and round it
• 21:08
  up now. The bottom line is what all
• 21:10
  these things that I've been saying, what is the whole point
• 21:11
  of all these things? We're just trying to use social
• 21:14
  media to show our expertise. People who see your, your hats
• 21:20
  online, who's your fascinators online, who see your profile,
• 21:24
  they should see that this babe, Bolu, I remember your name
• 21:28
  correctly. So Balu wants to start the heart
• 21:29
  and fascinator business. When people see you on
• 21:31
  Instagram, they should know that this very babe, as in this babe,
• 21:34
  she's the very babe. She's like, she's the bomb that
• 21:37
  when you when you want to spell fascinator, you spell
• 21:41
  fascinator. BOLU.
• 21:44
  The ones you see Balu, you see fascinator.
• 21:46
  That's what you're trying to show.
• 21:48
  Then also try and take advantage of shuffle posts.
• 21:51
  Now, I must confess, especially since I have left to talk that
• 21:54
  look, this is something that's passed me by, but apparently
• 21:57
  there's something called the shoppable post.
• 21:59
  You're able to do something to your post so that people can
• 22:01
  click directly and then go to your shopping store and then
• 22:04
  buy. So Balu, if that's the case, I
• 22:07
  better go and do some research so they can say you can hook up
• 22:09
  your TikTok handle so that people are browsing your TikTok
• 22:14
  and they see some that they like, they can click and then
• 22:16
  from there, you know, direct, they can now buy your stuff.
• 22:19
  I hear that shoppable posts are also available to some people in
• 22:24
  Instagram. Abby, I mean, it depends on the
• 22:27
  country. But anyway, don't take this
• 22:29
  thing as gospel truth. Just go and do your own
• 22:32
  research. Then what we're supposed to be
• 22:35
  doing, in case I haven't figured out, when it comes to social
• 22:38
  selling, is essentially we're just doing social activity
• 22:41
  online and we're trying to do paparazzi online.
• 22:44
  That's the whole point of social selling.
• 22:46
  Do social activity, do paparazzi.
• 22:49
  You are not trying to close any sales yet, but then you might be
• 22:55
  asking if I'm only going to be doing social activity all the
• 22:58
  time and then it's paparazzi every day, how will I make
• 23:00
  money? It's very simple.
• 23:02
  What you do is as you're having conversation with people,
• 23:05
  because there's some people that will say, oh, I like this, I
• 23:07
  like that. Oh, I like this.
• 23:10
  This was good. When you style this person, this
• 23:12
  was that, you know, all those conversations, you know, use
• 23:16
  what we call trial closes in sales.
• 23:20
  Trial close is anything you do or anything you say that tries
• 23:24
  to gauge, is this person interested?
• 23:28
  Is there any sense of urgency? Urgency just means, you know,
• 23:32
  time bound. Is there any reason why they
• 23:33
  need to make a decision today? Is there any possibility here?
• 23:36
  Is it possible that this person might end up becoming a client?
• 23:41
  So that's what a trial closes. Anything that you say, anything
• 23:44
  that you do, anything that you hint at that tries to gauge
• 23:47
  interest, tries to gauge urgency and tries to gauge plausibility.
• 23:51
  Now your trial closes have to be questions and conversational
• 23:56
  because that's just what average human beings do.
• 23:59
  So open-ended questions, who, what, why, when.
• 24:03
  So as you're interacting with people online, as they're
• 24:05
  commenting on your posts and things like that, you should be
• 24:07
  asking, you know, asking some kind of simple questions.
• 24:12
  And you can use these questions to transition into sales or
• 24:15
  initiate sales conversations. And that is how you take things
• 24:17
  offline as we ask a question like how does this blah, blah,
• 24:21
  blah sound to you? So I'm not a fascinator person,
• 24:24
  but you know, fascinators will have different kinds of
• 24:28
  features, for instance, like those ones that I make with a
• 24:30
  Peacock hat. So let's say you've been
• 24:33
  somebody has been commenting on a hat that was made with, OK,
• 24:39
  OK, let's say Guinea fowl feathers.
• 24:40
  I don't know if you can make a first fascinator with Guinea
• 24:42
  fowl feather, but let me just pretend that you can.
• 24:45
  So after a while you ask the person, So how does this sound
• 24:49
  to you? Are you leaning more towards
• 24:51
  Guinea fowl feathers or Peacock feathers for fascinators that
• 24:57
  you would like to use? See, that's like a trial close
• 25:00
  question you're trying to gauge. Is this person really
• 25:03
  interested? Is there a sense of urgency?
• 25:05
  Is it possible that this person might be a customer?
• 25:08
  It is when you start chatting like that in the comments
• 25:09
  section that is easy to say, oh, let's slide into DM and they can
• 25:13
  now close in the DM, another trial close.
• 25:16
  Can you see how this will fit your blah blah, blah, blah blah?
• 25:21
  Let's say you've been chatting back and forth.
• 25:22
  The lady mentioned that sister is getting married.
• 25:24
  Can you see how this thing will fit in your sister's bridal
• 25:30
  train? That is a trial close you're
• 25:34
  trying to gauge. Is this person interested?
• 25:37
  Is there any sense of urgency? You know, things like that.
• 25:42
  How does this measure up to what you're looking for or how does
• 25:46
  this measure up to your sense of style or how does this measure
• 25:48
  up to your, you know, blah, blah, blah?
• 25:50
  That is also a trial question. Do you have any questions about
• 25:55
  XYZ? Do you have any questions about
• 25:58
  our leopard skin fascinators? Do you have any questions about,
• 26:05
  you know, blah, blah, blah? Sorry, forgive me.
• 26:06
  I do not make fascinators, so this is just me making stuff up.
• 26:09
  Those of you who are in the business, you will know how to
• 26:12
  use the proper thing accordingly and then you can also ask how do
• 26:16
  you feel about price, how do you feel about delivery options, you
• 26:19
  know, stuff like that. So all those questions,
• 26:24
  depending on the answer you get will determine whether you are
• 26:26
  ready to move to a selling situation with this person or
• 26:31
  not. For those of you who keep
• 26:35
  thinking that if you sit behind a keyboard your life will be
• 26:39
  simpler, have you noticed the amount of work that you will
• 26:43
  have to do? If you have not noticed, rewind
• 26:48
  to the beginning of this episode and start listening again.
• 26:51
  Have you noticed the amount of work that is involved in social
• 26:54
  selling? That you'll be showing up
• 26:56
  everyday online and be doing social activity and be doing
• 26:59
  paparazzi, but yet you're not trying to close business because
• 27:03
  it's too tacky? Have you noticed the level of
• 27:06
  work that is involved for this level of work?
• 27:09
  Please. And because of the dynamics
• 27:11
  online, do not expect short term results.
• 27:15
  Do not assume that you open your handle in January and then in
• 27:19
  March, you know you're already counting your millions.
• 27:22
  It does not work that way. There are some industries, I'll
• 27:27
  be there, some products where that works like human hair and
• 27:29
  you know, stuff like that. Because to be honest, people are
• 27:32
  looking for human hair on Instagram.
• 27:34
  Then a different mind frame. Maybe 8% of the time they're
• 27:39
  just looking at designs. But, you know, eventually shy,
• 27:43
  something happens. Small money comes in at work or
• 27:46
  maybe, you know, something shy clicks.
• 27:48
  Or, you know, my birthday is coming.
• 27:50
  Let me just treat myself. Let me just buy one week, you
• 27:54
  know. So yes, in those kinds of
• 27:56
  things, like baby diapers and like human hair, Yeah.
• 28:00
  You can start in January and by March you can expect to be
• 28:03
  counting some. So good morning.
• 28:05
  But for other people, do not expect short term results.
• 28:09
  Now, this is the reason why I personally recommend old school
• 28:12
  prospecting because I think it's easier and it's quicker because
• 28:15
  Balu, if you are paying attention to the first episode
• 28:17
  where I was recommending much more traditional things like
• 28:20
  going to church, talking to some of your babes, going to the
• 28:22
  office, talking to some of your babes, like, oh, this
• 28:25
  fascinating thing we've been talking.
• 28:27
  Why don't start to have started the business, You know, support
• 28:29
  your girl now from all those conversations.
• 28:32
  You can start talking to somebody January 1st and then by
• 28:34
  January 15, January 16, the place like two or three others.
• 28:38
  It's possible. That is good for momentum and
• 28:42
  that is good for motivation that you started talking to people
• 28:46
  January 1st and then by January 21, some people have transferred
• 28:50
  money to your account. It feels good.
• 28:52
  You feel like I'm making some, I'm doing something, you know,
• 28:56
  you feel like you're on the right path, like you're going
• 28:59
  somewhere. You'll be feeling confident.
• 29:01
  You'll be feeling like you know, what if this thing continues in
• 29:05
  like 3 months, I can quit my job.
• 29:07
  Like I say bye bye to that my useless manager.
• 29:11
  But then if you're sleeping on Internet doing social selling, I
• 29:14
  mean the time will come, but it's medium to long term.
• 29:16
  Don't expect any short term results.
• 29:18
  And please if you must do social selling, do not resist the urge
• 29:22
  to to try and close people here and now.
• 29:27
  The goal of social selling is to show your expertise online.
• 29:30
  Be doing social activity, be doing paparazzi, show that you
• 29:33
  are the expert. Be engaging in small small
• 29:35
  conversations. Use trial close to figure out
• 29:38
  who is interested. From trial close you will now
• 29:40
  slide to DM and that is where you try and close the deal.
• 29:43
  But building trust online, building know like and trust
• 29:47
  online. Unfortunately my brothers and
• 29:50
  sisters, it actually takes time. So don't think you will do
• 29:53
  social selling January and then by March or April you are now
• 29:58
  counting good money. It doesn't work that way for
• 30:01
  most people. It doesn't if you're selling
• 30:04
  baby diapers, you know, yes, it works because I mean, who
• 30:08
  doesn't need for parents who have newborn kids, who doesn't
• 30:13
  need the diapers? I mean, they do.
• 30:14
  And like I said, for human hair and maybe Ankara people will
• 30:19
  lurk 80% of the time, but then eventually they get ready to
• 30:23
  pull the plug because they have some extra money, like the
• 30:26
  Ankara thing. OK, I haven't bought Ankara in
• 30:28
  years. But the last time I bought
• 30:30
  Ankara from this lady online, she's based in Lagos.
• 30:33
  One fabric, I think like 6 yards was, I think it was like 3-5 or
• 30:37
  so. I mean, some of you will be
• 30:38
  laughing now, you know, you know, that I haven't bought
• 30:40
  Ankara in a long while. So yeah.
• 30:44
  So it's like that now, yeah, we're looking at designs,
• 30:47
  looking at designs and eventually some money comes
• 30:49
  through and your wife is like, instead of looking at just buy
• 30:51
  now. So OK, which, which one do you
• 30:52
  want? This, that, that, that, that,
• 30:54
  how much is it? 35.1?
• 30:55
  OK, call the babe. Let's negotiate, transfer the
• 30:58
  money, pick up the delivery. You know, anyway, so summary,
• 31:01
  that's just it. That is what social selling is.
• 31:04
  And I probably am not going to talk about social selling much
• 31:07
  because I'm trying to get you guys to engage with people,
• 31:10
  shop, shop really, as in life, direct talk to someone, pick up
• 31:14
  the phone as quickly as possible.
• 31:16
  That's the reason why I don't talk so much about all this
• 31:19
  social selling stuff. So thank you very much for your
• 31:21
  time and attention. If you have any questions to ask
• 31:26
  or any contributions or you want to have a strategy session or a
• 31:29
  business audit, the number to reach me on is 08064662140.
• 31:35
  Again, 0806466 2140. The country code is +234.
• 31:42
  For those of you who are not Nigerian, that's my WhatsApp
• 31:45
  number. And please do not call me at,
• 31:48
  you know, ten, 11:30 at night like that one guy did you know?
• 31:52
  Well, at the very least send a message first before you start
• 31:55
  trying to call me at after 10 at night.
• 31:58
  It's just common sense and it's just being polite, particularly
• 32:02
  in the Nigerian context. You don't just hit up people
• 32:05
  late at night like that. So thanks for your time and
• 32:08
  attention. I'll catch you guys in the next
• 32:09
  episode.