Latest / Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint / Building a Freelance Business from Scratch: A Case Study

Transcript

Building a Freelance Business from Scratch: A Case Study · Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint

0:01
Hello and welcome to the show. On today's episode, we're going
0:05
to be, I'm going to be bringing you guys along with an adventure
0:08
that I've been having with someone who is starting his
0:12
business in Nigeria as an e-mail marketer.
0:17
Yeah, I think he wants to get involved in e-mail marketing.
0:19
So I'm just going to bring you guys along for the adventure
0:22
that I've had with this young man.
0:26
I didn't take time to, you know, look at our e-mail history, our
0:31
WhatsApp history, and then pull out what the salient points are
0:35
just because I'm in a bit of a rush today.
0:37
So for today's episode, I'm just reading directly from the
0:41
transcript of messages that we have.
0:43
So today's episode is going to be a little rough, little here
0:47
and there. So yes, so before I continue, I
0:53
have said on the podcast in the past that there are some people
0:57
that I talked to for free. I mean, of course I have a
1:00
conversation with everyone because it's not as if you have
1:03
to pay for every single conversation they want to have
1:04
with me. But I do have a soft spot for
1:08
people who are just leaving secondary school, entering into
1:11
uni, and people who are just about to graduate uni into NYSE.
1:15
So yes, I do spend a bit more time with these sorts of folks
1:18
and try and help them solve some of their problems.
1:22
But then again, just in case you're one of those people who
1:25
are thinking of calling me for free advice, like I said, I've
1:30
been doing this for a while. So it's very easy to figure out
1:32
who it is That is just trying to look for free, free service.
1:36
Sorry, free advice. So that's not going to work.
1:39
But then for people who are in this stage, you know, secondary
1:43
school people and then that, you know, like university sort of
1:48
hope, yes, I'll have the conversation with you.
1:50
I will try to help you, but Please note I will be giving you
1:54
assignments. And that is how I weed people
1:55
out because once you give some people assignment, they will
1:58
just fade. For some reason, people are
2:00
looking for free advice and they're looking for a magic
2:03
bullet. So just to let you guys know
2:05
that it does not work. So if you call me saying, you
2:09
know, I'm just finishing secondary school, I'm trying to
2:11
do this, I'm trying to do that. What do you think?
2:13
Yeah, we'll have that conversation, but then I'm going
2:15
to give you an assignment now. OK, based on this advice, this
2:18
is what you should do next. So go do this thing and then
2:22
come back to me next week Friday, let's have a chat at
2:25
10:00 AM. And that's how we people pretty
2:28
much. Because you'll find for some
2:29
reason that once you give somebody a concrete assignment
2:32
like that, like 99% of them just feed.
2:35
And just makes me wonder like, are you guys even serious about,
2:40
you know, the business that is that you're trying to you're
2:45
trying to pursue about what I'm just trying to say is I gave
2:47
them my phone numbers at every single podcast episode.
2:51
So feel free call. I'm not going to bill you for
2:53
every single conversation, especially those of you who are
2:55
secondary school, university ish.
2:58
Yes, no problem. We'll have the conversation.
3:00
I'll be giving all of you advice.
3:02
But then for those of you who are just looking for cheap free
3:05
advice, like look, I already have close to 1000 episodes over
3:09
here on the podcast. Just listen with a pen and
3:11
paper. The answer to everything that
3:12
you need is there. Or you can just do a Google
3:15
research, check YouTube, you know, you'll find all the free
3:19
advice that you need. So remember, like I keep saying
3:22
over here on the podcast, information is free.
3:24
So implementation is what you pay for.
3:27
All right, OK, so my contact details for those of you who
3:31
want to reach out, like the young man who reached out from
3:33
reached out to me. The phone number is 08064662140.
3:39
Country code is +234 if you're not Nigerian.
3:42
And then if you want to connect with me, connect with me on
3:45
LinkedIn from January 2025, that is going to be the only social
3:50
media that you'll be able to find me on.
3:53
I already took steps today to deactivate Abby.
3:57
Yeah, to deactivate my Facebook profile.
3:59
And I'm trying to deactivate my LinkedIn profiles as well
4:02
because they're there, I'm not really using them.
4:05
And people have tried to hack me like 3 times in the last week.
4:09
So like, I'm tired. Let me just shut those things
4:12
down. Unfortunately, the process
4:14
involves a like a 30 day waiting period.
4:16
So basically for those of you who prefer Facebook, Instagram,
4:25
OK, yes, I have to deactivate my TikTok.
4:27
You know, I'm sorry, but I'm not going to be on those channels
4:29
anymore because I'm not using them for anything.
4:31
And this one that people are trying to hack me like small me
4:35
like what do I have that people even want to hack my account?
4:38
Like I don't get it, so let me just delete it and save myself
4:42
the stress. So LinkedIn, that's where the
4:44
other peas are going to be able to find me.
4:46
So let's head straight into the history.
4:48
So this fellow got in touch on 06/20/20. 4:06 is July happy.
4:54
May is five. June.
4:57
OK so that's June. So this guy got in touch on the
4:59
12th of June 2024, introduced himself from LinkedIn and he
5:05
wanted to have a chat with me about something.
5:08
And what he had in mind was just out of school and he wants
5:13
professional advice regarding how he's going to get into
5:15
e-mail marketing. Now, he did a very smart thing,
5:18
which is first of all, he got an online certificate in e-mail
5:22
marketing a few months ago. That's as of the time of when he
5:25
reached out. He had just gotten the
5:27
certificate in e-mail marketing and then he was hoping to build
5:30
a business. Even though he doesn't have a
5:32
portfolio, he wants to be e-mail marketing freelance.
5:36
So now something that he did that was real nice.
5:39
So for those of you who are thinking to get into a new
5:41
business you haven't done before, all these online
5:44
certifications, certificate of proficiency, this, this, that,
5:47
that, that. It's nice if you can do these
5:49
sorts of things, you know, just to give you the confidence that
5:52
you know what it is that you're doing.
5:54
Also, because we don't want to be fraudulent because there's
5:57
only fraudsters that try to enter into a business thinking
6:00
that they can rough it. So if you know that you want to
6:04
provide the best service possible to your clients, it
6:08
would help if you go in and, you know, do some things here and
6:12
there to make sure that you have some sort of specialty in what
6:15
it is that you're supposed to be doing.
6:17
Now, from a sales perspective, one reason why we're supposed to
6:20
try and get some sort of specialty, some sort of
6:24
training, some sort of something, some sort of practice
6:27
and whatever it is that we're going to be doing is because it
6:30
is very hard to sell something that you don't know, that you
6:35
don't like, that you don't appreciate that deep down inside
6:37
your chest you feel as you feel as if you're not really, your
6:41
leg is not strong yet. So subject matter expertise is
6:44
the beginning of being very good in sales.
6:47
If you feel as safe, your leg in fashion is not strong.
6:52
It's going to limit the way that you go out and you talk to
6:55
people, whether in church or whether in your office or
6:57
whether in your family. They say, look, come and sew
6:59
your wedding and with me. Come and sew your Christmas
7:02
clothes with me. Come and sew this with me.
7:04
You'll be having those conversations because you, you
7:06
know that as far as fashion is concerned, my leg is not strong.
7:09
So you won't be going out and talking to people.
7:11
So subject matter expertise, absolutely important.
7:14
So just like this young man went to go and do online
7:16
certification, you. Yeah, I mean, go on, go and do
7:19
something. So if it's fashion in Abuja
7:22
anyway, there are those schools that do fashion courses and
7:25
things like that. You can go take one of those.
7:28
It doesn't have to be that fancy.
7:29
There are some people who want to get into these things and
7:31
they go to a place like for people who are not that, what's
7:36
the word? Okay, let me not say it anyway.
7:38
But bottom line is the fashion designers or tailors or people
7:42
who are OK with you saying that, look, I want to learn or let me
7:45
come and shadow you for three months, you don't have to pay
7:47
me, I'll be here, I'll do everything you want.
7:50
I just want to get exposed into the business.
7:52
There's some people who are OK with that, like, OK, sure, no
7:54
problem. They look at it as they're
7:56
getting free labour or they're getting an intern or something
7:59
and you look at it as a learning opportunity.
8:01
But there is something that you can do to expose yourself and
8:03
start getting subject matter expertise in the field that
8:06
you're going to move into. So it doesn't have to be a paid
8:09
thing. It doesn't have to be like this
8:11
internship thing that I'm talking about, like in the
8:13
fashion sense, you can, there's also YouTube free resources.
8:19
But bottom line, what I'm saying shy is go and do some background
8:22
study and make sure that you have some sort of knowledge that
8:26
you can use to get into the space.
8:27
So that's what the guy did. That was great.
8:29
And my advice to you guys, especially if you're like this
8:32
guy, you finish secondary school, uni hasn't clicked yet.
8:36
You're thinking, what can I do in the meantime?
8:38
This is not a bad way to go about it.
8:40
Now, I already made a podcast episode about his question,
8:42
which was how can he build a portfolio without experience?
8:46
And in the podcast episode that I made, I said that there is no
8:49
such thing as a portfolio without experience because a
8:52
portfolio, precisely what it means is this is what I have
8:56
done. Now, the reason why I know that
8:58
is because I started off as a wedding photographer.
9:01
And so for those of us in that space, fashion photography, you
9:05
know, we carry around the portfolio.
9:07
The portfolio, OK, well, people don't carry them now, but back
9:10
then a few of us, because like 15 years ago, that's when the
9:15
iPad started to rock. So lots of people were starting
9:19
to migrate to iPad. But for me, I had physical
9:23
portfolio and I know some fashion design people who still
9:25
had physical portfolio and you know a book with pictures and
9:28
stuff like that. So that's the essence of a
9:31
portfolio. This is what I have done.
9:33
So I told the guy that look, this whole thing of portfolio
9:36
without experience, it ain't going to happen.
9:38
The best you can do is go ahead and get some experience and then
9:42
you will now have the confidence and you will now have the case
9:46
studies or the results to back up some of your claims.
9:50
Because some of you want to get into e-mail marketing And you
9:53
say, you know, book now to three X 3X your business, something,
9:57
something 300% growth, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
9:59
You know, all that is just talk. But if you come to someone and
10:03
you say that, look for 2023, I worked with eight clients.
10:09
Of the 8 of them, six of them I was able to double their
10:12
business. The other ones I wasn't able to
10:15
double their business because they didn't follow my advice.
10:17
I mean, like in this case, that's a different conversation.
10:20
You're coming to say this is what I have done in this
10:23
particular industry and for these kinds of individuals.
10:26
And in fact, of these six individuals, three of them say
10:30
no problem that they can use me as reference.
10:32
So if you want to call any of them to have a chat to see what
10:34
the experience of working together was, was like, no
10:37
problem, I can give you their phone number.
10:39
Now you see that that's a different kind of conversation
10:42
that you coming in fresh saying I will now 3X your business or
10:45
now double your business or I'll achieve is how I'll achieve
10:48
that. So my right said the guy was go
10:50
get some experience. Forget this whole thing of
10:52
portfolio without experience just doesn't work.
10:54
And I'm going to repeat it again because I see some stuff like
10:57
that on the Internet and it's particularly young boys who are
11:00
talking these kind of things. Please stop this whole thing of
11:02
portfolio without experience. It does not work, does not exist
11:08
and it ain't going to happen. And if you try to get a
11:13
portfolio without experience, whatever that means, you come
11:16
across as a fraudster. And it doesn't help because as
11:19
young men, people already expects us to be sharp and to
11:21
cut corners anyway. So let's not try and build into
11:24
that, that stereotype. So my advice to the guy was go
11:27
get some experience. And then he wanted to, he
11:31
agreed. He said he would try and do some
11:33
stuff on FIFA and Upwork. And I told him FIFA, Upwork,
11:36
that's cool. But to be honest, FIFA and
11:38
Upwork and all those sites where you go and register and to sell
11:43
your expertise, how do I put it? 500 and Upwork, they are part of
11:48
the the gig economy. Yeah, that's what it's called.
11:51
So people who have extra capacity and extra skills, you
11:54
just go and list yourself on that website.
11:55
Like, oh, I'm good at copywriting, blah, blah, blah.
11:57
If you want to work with me, this is my rate.
12:01
Give me a call. Let's discuss.
12:03
So I'll stick with the guys that 500 and Upwork is cool.
12:06
But The thing is, 500 and Upwork are heavily populated.
12:11
There are lots of people there. So before people will give you
12:15
the time of day, it will take time because excuse me, somebody
12:20
will check fiver, somebody will check up work and the person
12:23
will see that there are maybe 2000 professionals listed there.
12:27
And of the 2000 professionals listed there, maybe, I don't
12:31
know, maybe 500. And Nigerian, of the 500 that
12:33
are Nigerian listed there, maybe 300 of them have been doing it
12:38
for like 5 years or more and have experience with 10 clients
12:41
each. And then you, you're just fresh.
12:44
I mean, think about it, who are they going to pick, the other
12:48
guys who have like three to five years experience or you?
12:51
So that's why I told him that forever on up work.
12:52
Yeah, keep your profile on on all these things.
12:55
But if you're waiting for experience to come from there,
12:58
you will wait for a while. So I told him that, look, it's
13:01
best to go out and then try and see how you can get work from
13:08
people. And my advice to him now people
13:11
do not like this advice, but I'm giving it anyway.
13:16
You have no obligation to follow this advice.
13:19
In fact, those of you who come from the creative space,
13:22
photographers, graphic designers, you people will curse
13:25
me right now from what I'm about to say, but I'm not talking to
13:31
you. I'm talking to this young man
13:32
that I was talking to. And he was OK with the idea.
13:34
So This is why I told him there are lots of people out there who
13:38
want to improve their business using e-mail marketing, but they
13:42
don't know what to do or they don't think they don't have
13:44
money. Reach out to these people and
13:46
level with them. Look, it's my situation.
13:50
I'm in between secondary school and uni.
13:53
I'm trying to get into this business.
13:55
This is my certification. These are the skills that I
13:57
have. Why don't you let me in?
13:59
Let me have a look at your business.
14:00
Let's see what it is that we can improve.
14:02
Let me see how I can grow your business in exchange.
14:05
All I ask is for the profits that I bring, for the business
14:10
that I bring, for the improvements that I make.
14:12
You give me a Google review, you give me a testimonial, you give
14:15
me a referral, you know, all those sorts of things like you
14:17
know, that that kind of conversation.
14:19
So I said that this is where those of you who are doing
14:22
graphic design and photography will shoot me in the head
14:25
because back when I was starting back then, for some reason,
14:28
people in that space, they say no, no, no, no, no, that people
14:31
must pay for absolutely everything that they get from
14:33
you. And I agree, but The thing is
14:36
the market is rough. In the beginning you don't have
14:38
a reputation. In the beginning you have done
14:40
nothing. At least try and say you can do
14:43
something small. So that was actually how I got
14:47
into the wedding photography game.
14:49
I shot 8 weddings. One of those weddings is the one
14:55
that I charge 50K for that I keep talking about.
14:58
Of course my brother's wedding that was for free.
15:00
My friend in Scotland at the time when we're because we were
15:03
just finished uni, that was free, but you know, small, small
15:07
weddings like that now you know, 50K here, 100K here, all those
15:09
small, small things. I did eight of those and I used
15:13
that to compile My Portfolio. So I took those eight weddings,
15:16
divided them into 4 sections and then created the book.
15:19
So I had only done 8 weddings like I said, but if you take 8
15:22
weddings, you break it into 4 sections.
15:25
That is 8 * 4 is that is is that is that 32 Abby 8816881632 So
15:32
that's 32. So My Portfolio now had 32
15:36
sections, 1 section couple portraits, 1 section
15:41
decorations, 1 section makeup, one section, you know like that
15:46
like that shop, but 8. So now My Portfolio looked like
15:49
it was full. Anybody looking at it and seeing
15:51
the pages be like this guy has experience.
15:54
But actually it was just 8 weddings.
15:56
I just took 8 weddings and I chopped it up into four sections
16:00
so that everything will now look full.
16:02
And that was My Portfolio. So that was the same scope that
16:04
I was giving this guy. Like I said, photographers,
16:09
graphic design people, software design people.
16:11
I know you. If you see me, you shoot me in
16:13
the head. Well, you know, you don't have
16:15
to take this advice. Well, for those of you who are
16:17
brave enough to try it out, it's not a bad way to get some sort
16:20
of a portfolio and then move on quickly.
16:24
So let's see. Obviously, the first assignment
16:27
that I gave him was to come up with copy for sorry, I'm looking
16:36
at the messaging. And so that was the first
16:38
assignment that I gave him. So OK, if you're OK with this
16:39
idea, Create an e-mail now that you're going to start sending to
16:42
business owners to see how we can get some of this kind of
16:45
work from them. And this is what he came up
16:47
with. So he wrote, this is his own
16:51
advice. Let me see.
16:53
Sorry. So I'm looking for the text.
16:56
Like I said, I'm scrolling through plenty of stuff.
16:58
So this is what he came up with. As a burgeoning e-mail marketer,
17:02
I am excited to offer my services at no cost while I
17:06
build a robust portfolio with training and passion for
17:09
crafting compelling e-mail campaigns, I am ease.
17:12
I am eager to apply my skills to real world scenarios.
17:16
In exchange, I seek testimonials and the opportunity to showcase
17:21
results of my work in My Portfolio.
17:23
This mutually beneficial agreement will help you enhance
17:27
your e-mail marketing while allowing me to demonstrate my
17:30
abilities. So that's why he crafted.
17:33
And of course, for obvious reasons, I thought, no, this is
17:36
not good because first of all, it's too worthy and it's not
17:40
direct. But I'm not going to do a full
17:42
breakdown about how he should have done this message.
17:45
Oh, sorry, there's a concluding paragraph.
17:47
If you're interested in leveraging this opportunity,
17:49
please reach out. Let's create something impactful
17:51
together. Best regards.
17:53
And then he put his name there now.
17:57
So that's it. So I didn't think it was going
18:00
to work. That's what he drafted.
18:01
And he wanted my opinion. So I just told him, I, look,
18:03
dude, it's all right, but he needs some work.
18:07
But instead of going through the whole thing because, you know,
18:11
coaching takes time, I just told him, like, look, use Char GBT
18:14
and rewrite it. What do you think?
18:15
And then he said, OK, what do you think?
18:17
He's lacking, Sir, I'm going to work on it.
18:19
I said, OK, no problem. So I told him I gave him a
18:22
prompt to use. And so I told him that look,
18:24
take this draft that you've written, all right, you're now
18:28
going to put it in Char GBT and ask Char GBT to help you to
18:31
rewrite this thing. And this is the prompt.
18:34
Now remember, for those of you who have listened to the
18:37
episodes where I spoke about using Charge GBT to promote your
18:40
business, I spoke about the anatomy of a prompt.
18:43
A prompt is just an instruction that you give to Charge GBT or
18:48
to a computer program, you know, to do something.
18:51
It's a command that you give to a computer software.
18:54
That's what a prompt is. So this is what I told him the
18:56
prompt should be. I am an e-mail marketer.
19:01
Sorry, hold on, where am I? So I have one more where's my
19:10
prompt? So forgive me.
19:12
Rewrite it as a prompt, paste into ChatGPT.
19:24
OK, yeah. So I told him to just copy.
19:27
OK, we need to even come up with a with a prompt.
19:29
Sorry for that with a detailed prompt because I can't remember
19:33
if I was tired. What happened?
19:35
Yeah, OK. I need to teach this guy how to
19:37
prompt anyway. No problem.
19:38
So I just told him to copy that thing, paste it and then put an
19:43
an instruction at the bottom and then that would be a prompt.
19:45
So this is what we wrote. This is the instruction to chat
19:47
TPT. I am an I'm a new e-mail
19:50
marketer. I'm excited to offer my services
19:52
to businesses in my neighbourhood at no cost while I
19:55
build a robust portfolio. With training and passion for
19:58
crafting compelling e-mail campaigns, I'm eager to apply my
20:00
skills to real world scenarios. Here's what I can offer
20:04
customized e-mail campaigns, segmentation, analytics, and
20:08
reporting. In exchange, I seek testimonials
20:11
and the opportunity to showcase the results of my work in My
20:13
Portfolio. This mutually beneficial
20:16
arrangement will help businesses enhance their e-mail marketing
20:20
while allowing me to demonstrate my capabilities.
20:23
So that's 1/2. Then the instruction that we
20:27
give to ChatGPT was use this information above to create a
20:32
draft prospecting e-mail that will entice businesses to want
20:36
to work with me. So you see now how I didn't
20:40
teach him how to prompt, but you can see how copying and pasting
20:44
what he said. Now giving ChatGPT the
20:46
instruction, use this information above to create a
20:51
draft prospecting e-mail that will entice businesses to want
20:55
to work with me. That was the instruction.
20:58
And then I told him, whatever he gives you, let's see what he
21:02
gives. And then this is what your GPT
21:05
gave. And you see that this one made a
21:07
bit more sense. Oh, by the way, for those of you
21:09
who are wondering what does prospecting mean?
21:11
Yesterday's episode was precisely about that.
21:13
So once you're done listening to this, skip back and listen to
21:16
yesterday's episode. If you're a newbie, if this is
21:18
your first time on the podcast, listen to that and then you'll
21:21
find out what prospecting means and why that is important.
21:25
That also was based off an interaction with the real world
21:28
person, a Lozier, who listens to the podcast and who made a bunch
21:32
of comments on Spotify about where he can find sales
21:35
training, the kind of sales training that would be necessary
21:37
for him to move his business forward as a newbie in the
21:40
space. So yesterday's podcast episode,
21:43
and I think the three or four that came before that, what
21:45
devoted exclusive to those sorts of things.
21:48
And so we spoke about what prospecting is.
21:51
So now this is what Shaggy PT said.
21:53
He took this guy's e-mail. Let's just call this guy Big
21:56
Pawn. Yeah, so this one Big Pawn.
21:59
So he took Big Pawn's e-mail and this is what he responded.
22:03
Oh no, that's not a good name. Sorry.
22:04
Let me look for something else. OK, let's call him Shadrack.
22:07
OK, good. So he took Shadrack's e-mail and
22:11
he gave a response and this is what the response was.
22:13
It says hi bracket business owner slash manager name.
22:18
I hope this e-mail finds you well.
22:19
By the way, I don't mind ChatGPT always puts.
22:22
I hope this e-mail finds you well.
22:23
Please delete whenever you try that and ChatGPT puts I hope you
22:26
find this. Just delete it.
22:28
Everybody knows that that is ChatGPT speak and in the
22:31
Nigerian context, just fluffy. Just waste your time.
22:33
Well, let me just read it anyway.
22:35
Hi, I hope this e-mail finds you well.
22:36
My name is Shadrach and I am a passionate e-mail marketer eager
22:41
to collaborate with local businesses in our community.
22:44
While I'm building My Portfolio, I'm offering my e-mail marketing
22:47
services at no cost. Here's what I can bring to your
22:50
business. Customized e-mail campaigns
22:53
tailored with your brand voice and goals designed to engage and
22:57
convert audiences to do business with you #2 segmentation.
23:02
Targeted messaging to your to the right customer base to make
23:06
your business appear more relevant and effective.
23:10
Then the three analytics and reporting clear insights and
23:14
performance metrics so that you can understand the impact of
23:18
your campaigns and Dr. future revenue.
23:22
In exchange, I seek your testimonial and the opportunity
23:25
to showcase the results of my work.
23:28
This mutually beneficial arrangement, you know, blah,
23:30
blah, blah. If you're interested in boosting
23:32
your e-mail marketing efforts. So let me surprise you, if
23:36
you're interested in boosting your e-mail marketing efforts,
23:39
please reply to this e-mail or call me at 080, blah, blah,
23:42
blah. I look forward to the
23:44
possibility of working together. So it's still a bit too long for
23:48
my liking, but basically, we can take that thing, cut some of the
23:52
sentences in half, and I think we're good to go because it came
23:55
out with a clean structure saying hi, I'm a passionate
24:00
e-mail marketer and I want to work with local businesses for
24:03
free. These are the benefits that I
24:05
can give you, customized e-mail segmenting and then analytics so
24:10
that we can target people better.
24:12
In exchange, I would like testimonials and to be able to
24:16
showcase the results that I got with you.
24:19
If you're interested in working with me, reply to this e-mail or
24:23
call me at this number. I'm looking forward to the
24:25
possibility of working together, signed Shadrach.
24:30
So that was so basically I wanted him to edit it so that he
24:34
would just be short, short, short like that.
24:37
And of course I told him that he must fit his personality like in
24:42
editing it, he should talk the way he talks.
24:46
So that was it. So let's see in his own
24:50
professional opinion, he said the thing was too long because
24:53
since he's I'm not an e-mail marketer, so I don't know the
24:55
rules of the game, but the guy because he has received because
24:58
Shadrach has received professional training.
25:00
He said that the the e-mail should be around 50 to 125
25:03
words. I was like, oh, OK, cool.
25:06
If that is what they taught you guys in e-mail marketing school,
25:09
by all means, you know, make sure it is 50 to 125.
25:12
You can even use ChatGPT to cut it down.
25:17
Then let's see what else So he did that.
25:21
Let me not, OK, this is almost 30 minutes.
25:24
So he did it. A shorter version of the e-mail
25:26
came up. I'm not going to read that just
25:29
to save time. But bottom line is we arrived at
25:32
something that met his criteria. That for me was direct saying
25:37
this is me, this is what I want to do.
25:39
These are the benefits. In exchange, I want to be able
25:43
to use you as a testimonial and for referrals.
25:46
If you're interested, call me at this number or reply to this,
25:49
respond to this e-mail. And then he wanted it to be
25:52
between 50 and 125 words. So we found something that met
25:58
the that met both of our criteria.
26:03
Then I told him that, OK, now, now that you've finished this
26:06
first assignment and we have the draft assignment 2 is begin.
26:11
Just start send this e-mail. All you have to do is go online,
26:17
look at business directory, business directory Nigeria,
26:20
business directory, Lagos business, you know, whatever.
26:23
And we'll give you a list of businesses, the office address,
26:27
their emails, their phone number.
26:28
And then you can start hitting up these people and then see
26:30
what happens. And then I also told him that
26:33
you can also do physical in the flesh, like you can come out, go
26:37
out of the estate of your house. That's because he lives in Lagos
26:40
and Lagos is built differently than Abuja because for Lagos,
26:43
once you go out of the corner of your street and you get to the
26:46
main road, you have businesses to your left, businesses to your
26:50
right. That was how Lagos is.
26:51
Abuja, it's a bit different. So I told him you can go
26:54
outside. Once you go outside your estate,
26:56
just look to the left, you will see 10 businesses to your left,
26:59
you will see 10 businesses to your right and that's it.
27:03
That's your prospecting base there.
27:05
My side was going to do the online thing.
27:08
So I told him that is what you do just to take it slow so you
27:12
don't get overwhelmed. Take this e-mail, make sure you
27:15
are emailing 5 people per day. Are you comfortable with that?
27:19
He said he is and so I told him why I go forth begin start
27:23
sending the emails. Another reason why I was telling
27:25
him to do this is because in doing this it is part of him
27:31
eating his own dog food. The proof is in the pudding.
27:33
I'll be how do they say the the taste is in the eating?
27:36
Whatever that parable is, by him doing this, he is using e-mail
27:43
marketing to get into the business of being an e-mail
27:48
marketer. Also wanted him to use it on
27:52
himself, get a feel of it. It would also make him feel
27:55
confident if he's going to use these techniques that he has
27:59
learnt from the school to promote his own business by
28:02
himself. When he's employing these
28:04
techniques to other people, he would even feel much more
28:06
confident, much more competent, much more capable running after
28:11
executing for other clients. So he started sending the
28:15
messages to people and he called me back in about two days saying
28:19
that two people had two people had agreed to it and he was very
28:23
happy. And then of course, I'm always
28:25
happy when I give you guys an assignment, whether you're a
28:28
paid client or we're talking for free.
28:29
If you happen to be like this guy, you finish secondary
28:32
school, uni hasn't clicked in the meantime, you're saying,
28:35
what am I going to do? So I'm always very happy.
28:37
So I was like, hey, thumbs up. I was happy for the guys, like
28:40
see, no problem. So just go ahead.
28:42
Remember, keep this thing limited.
28:44
You can't be working for free for somebody for six months
28:47
because, you know, realistically we have bills to pay.
28:49
So at your first meeting, you guys decide on how long this
28:52
thing is going to be. I'm going to be here for three
28:54
weeks, for two weeks, for whatever amount of time, we'll
28:57
try out this idea, we'll try out this idea, you know, blah, blah,
28:59
blah. I also told him that since he's
29:02
working for free, some people wouldn't mind covering TP as in
29:07
transport to come into the office.
29:11
Well, that's what I think anyway, because back when I was
29:14
in Kano and let me not start a long story, but basically some
29:18
people are open to that, that yes, I'm doing this thing, I'm
29:21
working for free. But let's be realistic, you
29:24
know, at least TP for the times that are coming to the office.
29:27
By how much is transport? Where do you live?
29:29
Take transport. That won't be a problem.
29:32
So let's see. What else?
29:35
What else? So excuse me, I have to scroll.
29:38
Like I said, message history was plenty.
29:42
Plenty, plenty. OK, so that was it basically.
29:47
And I congratulated him and he was on his way.
29:49
Then six months later, he reached out again, reintroducing
29:55
himself. Well, of course, I remembered
29:56
him once I checked message history.
29:59
And by the way, for those of you who are reaching out to me on
30:02
WhatsApp or LinkedIn, especially those of you on WhatsApp,
30:06
whether you're a paid client or not, this is the reason why I
30:09
say do not delete message history.
30:12
A bunch of you have this whole disappearing message thing on
30:15
WhatsApp, as in disappearing message for what?
30:19
Leave the message history there so that you can always go back
30:23
time and time again to remember, oh, this is who this person is.
30:27
This is what we discussed, you know, blah, blah, blah.
30:29
So because he didn't do the disappearing message thing and
30:32
some of you who even run business itself, you have
30:34
disappearing messages. That's the one that absolutely
30:36
blows my mind. You are a business.
30:40
This person is a paying client. You guys have done quarrelling
30:44
over WhatsApp, negotiating over WhatsApp, discussing trade terms
30:48
over WhatsApp, and you now go and put disappearing message
30:51
timer 90 days. If there's a problem on day 96
30:55
and you want to refer back to the chat, how will you see the
30:58
chat business people listening to this, please?
31:01
It's, it's, it's asinine, it's insane.
31:04
Can you just turn off disappearing messages on
31:07
WhatsApp? It does not make sense.
31:10
Leave it there. It's not as if you're paying for
31:12
anything. These things are free and
31:14
they're stored in the cloud. Leave it there, Especially for
31:17
those of you who don't have ACRM.
31:19
Leave the message there so you can refer to it in the future.
31:23
So sorry, forgive me for that round.
31:27
So I know, of course I shared message history.
31:29
I remember who he was. And yeah, this is where the
31:33
story doesn't end up too well. So he told me that for those two
31:36
people, once they started talking money, they they faded.
31:42
And of course they faded because if you tell people that
31:44
something is free, they actually expect that The thing is going
31:48
to be free. So if you tell somebody free and
31:51
you now start talking money, of course they will fade.
31:55
And his justification was that, well, they needed to pay for one
31:58
or two things. It's not as if the money will go
32:00
to him. The money will go to for website
32:04
hosting and blah, blah, blah, and things like that.
32:06
And then I asked him, I asked him, what did they ask him?
32:13
Again? I can't remember what I asked
32:14
him, but basically response was, well, people have to pay for a
32:17
domain name. They have to pay for web hosting
32:22
and have to pay for e-mail marketing platforms like
32:24
MailChimp. And yeah, yeah, yeah, that, that
32:26
makes sense. OK.
32:27
Then they also need to pay for online security.
32:32
SMTPI think that's some sort of security protocol.
32:37
And then DARMZ, those of you who are in this space, you know, I'm
32:42
sure you know what it means, but for me, it just means a whole
32:44
bunch of I don't know, I I have no idea what this means.
32:48
And there's also another reason why I keep telling you people
32:50
here now when you're talking to customers, leave out your
32:54
professional jargon. It means nothing to the average
32:58
human being. For someone like me, I thought I
33:00
was getting a free service. I'm only paying your TP, your
33:04
transport fare. Next thing you're telling me I
33:05
have to pay for SMTP. What the hell is SMTP?
33:09
Or I have to pay for DARMCI? Don't know what DARMC is.
33:13
So some of you are destroying your business opportunities
33:17
because you're using jargon that the person does not understand.
33:21
So please, when we're talking about these things, potential
33:23
customers or clients, let's leave out all this fancy
33:25
technical stuff. Yes, when you're drawing up the,
33:28
the contract, you can put the technical things there to
33:30
specify, you know, just for clarity's sake.
33:34
But at the beginning, keep this thing as common sense, as easy
33:40
conversational as possible. But it depends.
33:42
If you're talking to somebody else who is also a specialist in
33:46
that area, then of course it is not a problem.
33:49
So one e-mail specialist talking to another e-mail specialist,
33:54
you will are talking SMTPDMDRIMC domain hosting some you will
34:00
understand each other, it's not a problem.
34:02
But if you're talking to an ordinary person like my mum for
34:05
instance, and you say, oh Madam, you need SMTPDRMIC web hosting
34:10
where you've lost mumsy. Now of course my mumsy is kind
34:15
of my mumsy is she's bold. So she would say look young man,
34:19
slow down, what is SMTP? So she will slow you down.
34:22
Now you will walk her through the whole thing.
34:24
But the average Nigerian will just say OK, OK, let me think
34:28
about it. And then that is where you enter
34:30
ghost, ghost mode. People will start ghosting you.
34:35
You start entering e-mail, nobody's you start entering, you
34:40
understand nobody's responding your messages.
34:43
So leave all that technical jargon, but what was I?
34:48
I lost my train of thought. Uh huh.
34:50
So this is all the things you were saying that you should pay
34:52
for. And I agree with him that OK,
34:54
yeah, actually, it does make sense.
34:57
Somebody has to pay for all these things.
34:58
So of course the guy has to pay for it.
35:00
But now what I told the guy was this.
35:02
Instead of telling him all these things, SMTP hosting something,
35:06
something, something, and then giving them exact estimate and
35:11
then they're not responding to you.
35:14
I told him that next time don't tell them, but rather frame it
35:18
as a question, because these things are prerequisites for all
35:22
the prerequisites. You don't dictate, you just
35:24
frame it as a question. So I told him the next time put
35:26
it like this. Before we start working
35:28
together, you need to have a few things in place.
35:32
It's OK to ask you a couple of questions so we know whether you
35:34
have all the prerequisites before we can start.
35:36
Of course, the other person will say, Oh yeah, sure, sure, sure.
35:38
What do I need? You not ask the personal
35:40
question. Do you have a website?
35:42
If the person says, oh, no, I don't have a website, you now
35:44
say, oh God, if we went to the e-mail marketing the way that I
35:48
want us to do it, you actually need a website.
35:50
The governor said website, OK, what are the implications?
35:54
Then you guys start talking. If the person says, yes, I have
35:58
a website and I say, oh, cool, cool, no problem.
36:00
Do you have security protocols on it?
36:03
The girl said, wait, what is security protocol?
36:05
So, OK, look, e-mail marketing, people are trying to steal your
36:08
data. People are trying to do this.
36:10
We want to do that. Security protocol just means
36:14
something you put on the website to make sure nobody can steal
36:17
your data. Do you know whether you have
36:19
security protocol? The guy is going to answer
36:22
honestly like most Nigerian owners that well, I don't have a
36:25
website security protocol, I have no idea.
36:28
Let me ask the website guy and then you can now say, OK, ask
36:33
the website guy, let's walk in on Friday.
36:35
Although me, what I prefer to do is I prefer to say, OK, sure, no
36:38
problem. Your website that you have the
36:40
phone number, say, yeah, I have caller's phone number.
36:41
So OK, no problem, give me caller's phone number.
36:43
Let me call the guy because for me, I believe so in one moment
36:47
I'll be back. OK, sorry about that.
36:53
I'm back. The house was being cleaned, so
36:56
I needed to need to attend to something.
37:00
Yeah, where was I? So I'll say like in my own case
37:02
now I prefer in taking a lot of the initiative so that this
37:08
things can move on quickly. Because if you tell the guy
37:11
that, OK, go and talk to your website guy and get back to me,
37:15
let's talk again on Friday. You might finish that
37:17
conversation and then something else happens, either business or
37:22
personal. And then the guy forgets.
37:24
And then you call him again on Friday and it's like, oh, sorry,
37:28
you're I didn't call that my website guy again.
37:31
Something happened. I beg no Vex, let me call him
37:33
now. Let's talk on Monday and then
37:36
you call him on Monday and then it's another, oh, my children
37:39
had PTA meeting. Something, something, something,
37:42
blah, blah, blah. I'm sorry.
37:44
Let me talk to the e-mail guy. Let's talk again on Wednesday.
37:47
And you can see how comma starts entering the whole thing.
37:50
So I prefer to take a lot of the initiative.
37:52
So in this kind of situation, I will tell the guy, oh sure, no
37:55
problem. Just hand me his phone number.
37:57
Let's let me talk professional, professional.
37:59
We can finish this conversation in like 5 minutes.
38:01
I'll figure out what kind of security protocols you have and
38:03
what facilities that you need. And if we have been having a
38:07
nice trusting relationship so far where we built rapport, the
38:10
guy should have no problem handing me over his website
38:12
person's phone number. I'll now call the guy and then
38:16
because it is you e-mail marketing specialist talking to
38:20
website specialist, you can now start telling asking the person,
38:23
do you have SMTP? Do you have DARMC?
38:28
Are you Niger security compliant?
38:31
What about EU? Something something all the
38:33
technical things you can ask him at the gaol level with you
38:36
because both of you, it is your thing.
38:39
You're in the business. But if you're trying the SMTP,
38:41
the business owner, you have lost him because he has no idea
38:44
what that means. And I'm sure 90% of us listening
38:47
to this podcast right now have no idea what SMTP means or
38:51
DARMZ. So I tell him that's how you
38:55
introduce it. Next time don't give the person
38:59
a bill. You told the person that this
39:01
thing is free and the person says, cool, when shall we begin?
39:05
The next e-mail you send them, you're giving them bill,
39:08
itemized bill of, you know, a couple, ten 10s of thousands.
39:12
Of course they will say this guy's a scammer and they'll
39:14
block you. Rather make it a conversation.
39:18
Oh, by the way, he responded by e-mail.
39:21
And this one reason why I tell you guys, please, it's easier to
39:23
move conversations along over the phone.
39:26
If at some point I've gotten the phone number, it's easier to
39:28
have a phone call and say, oh, Sir, thank you very much.
39:32
I'm looking forward to us starting next week.
39:36
But before we start, there are a few things I need to, a few
39:40
questions I need to ask. I want to make sure that you
39:41
have something set up before we begin because before you start
39:44
e-mail marketing, Sir, there are some things that need to be in
39:47
place. So are you free for us to talk
39:49
now? Who say, yeah, cool, we're
39:50
already on the phone. Continue, young man.
39:51
And then you will now ask the question, Sir, do you have a
39:54
website? You answer, OK, the website.
39:58
Do you have do you have security protocols in place?
40:02
Do you have e-mail marketing platform?
40:05
You say which one is e-mail marketing platform?
40:08
I'll tell him that, Sir, for us to do e-mail marketing, we
40:10
cannot be running the emails through your personal e-mail
40:13
account because of this reason or that reason.
40:16
We need to host it in a professional something because
40:19
of this. Because of that, you'll explain
40:21
how all these conversations over the phone.
40:24
When you have this conversation over the phone and you're taking
40:28
it this way, like you're trying to ask him that, Sir, we need a
40:31
few things in place before we begin.
40:33
You won't come across as a scammer.
40:36
You just come across as a diligent young man who's trying
40:38
to go ahead and deliver the value that you promised.
40:44
So I told him that this is how you start the conversation.
40:47
But the main reason why I wanted to make today's podcast episode
40:51
was not just to share this adventure with you and share
40:53
some of the learnings. So excuse me, Hammer Tan.
40:58
So my voice is beginning to suffer.
41:01
So some of the learnings that we we've, we've been through along
41:03
the way. But I wanted to point out one
41:05
thing, especially since yesterday's episode, we were
41:09
talking about prospecting and the episodes before we were
41:13
talking about prospecting and this guy, the journey that we
41:17
had together was precisely about prospecting even though he was
41:21
not going to charge any money from them.
41:23
But essentially this is a live case study you can see about how
41:27
you go about generating prospects for your business.
41:32
So this is prospecting one-on-one live and in the flesh
41:35
that somebody has done secondary school student.
41:38
So please, those of us who have finished university, we have
41:42
finished master's degree and we have worked for a few years, you
41:48
know, 10 years working experience, you know, blah,
41:49
blah, blah. We have absolutely no excuse to
41:52
say we cannot engage in prospecting activity.
41:55
Our younger brothers, like this guy, we call him Shadrack, not
41:58
his real name. Our younger brothers and sisters
42:00
like Shadrack, them and the ladies who reach out to me from
42:03
UI, they're already doing this thing.
42:06
So those of us who are more educated and who have some work
42:09
experience, we can do this thing too.
42:11
I understand that it's a little somehow, like this thing is
42:15
beneath me. I have a master's degree in so,
42:18
so, so and so, and I have worked in so, so, so and so.
42:21
How will I start chasing and pursuing people?
42:24
I understand. And if you have those hang ups,
42:26
yeah, let's talk. It's not something I run away
42:29
from. It's just part of building
42:30
business. You must chase.
42:33
You have to. Except if you're building a
42:35
luxury brand, I have no idea about luxury brands cause for
42:40
luxury, that's the whole thing. If you're a luxury brand and
42:43
you're chasing people, then you won't seem that luxury anymore
42:47
anyway. But this bottom doesn't.
42:49
These are the main reasons why I'm sharing this is prospecting.
42:52
Anybody can do it. No matter your situation,
42:54
whether you've just finished secondary school or whether you
42:57
have masters and you have 10 years work experience, anybody
43:00
can do it. You have to do it.
43:01
Is that is the way to get the wall rolling.
43:04
But this is one problem that the guy ran into that a lot of us
43:07
are going to run into that we don't kind of anticipate.
43:12
My guy got 2 responses and guess what he did?
43:16
He stopped prospecting. He stopped sending out emails
43:20
before he because he got two good responses.
43:23
No, that is not how it works. Prospecting has to be an ongoing
43:28
thing as we have to be doing it on the steady.
43:32
So if two people answer you today, no problem.
43:34
Start running conversations with those people and say how you can
43:37
close the deal. But then when you're done having
43:40
conversation with those people, you continue with your
43:42
prospecting. Think of it, if you're running
43:45
emails, sorry, advertisements on TV, you don't want the
43:49
advertisement. You get one deal and then you
43:51
stop with the advertisement. No, that's not how it works.
43:53
You continue to run the advertisement so that you keep
43:57
on getting fresh leads because you're not going to get one
44:01
customer and work with the customer for life.
44:04
So whatever it is that you're doing prospecting, continue to
44:06
prospect on a daily or on a weekly, whichever 1 is
44:09
comfortable for you. If it's advertising that you're
44:11
doing, continue to run the advertising on the daily, on the
44:14
weekly or monthly, you know, depending on what you do or how
44:17
much money that you have. Because we need to keep deal
44:20
flow coming up. We have to keep talking to two
44:22
people. So two people agreed that let's
44:25
go ahead six months ago and then he stopped prospecting and he's
44:30
worried about all this thing is difficult and blah, blah, blah
44:34
and all or not. The problem is not that it's
44:36
difficult. The problem was that you stopped
44:38
prospecting two months ago after two people said yes, let us go
44:42
ahead. And then those two fell through
44:44
the cracks. And that's also another reason
44:46
why we keep prospecting because it's not everybody who answers
44:48
and says yes that you end up doing business with.
44:52
So if you're prospecting and then in one week 10 people reach
44:56
out to you continue to prospect out of that 10, it doesn't mean
44:59
you would do business with 10. Out of that 10, you might only
45:02
do business with two. But The thing is, after you do
45:04
business with the two this week, next week you need to be talking
45:07
to fresh people because you need fresh deals to close.
45:10
So prospecting always has to be a constant.
45:12
There has to be something unsteady.
45:14
So it's not that the economy is hard and it's not that the
45:17
business is hard and stuff like that.
45:18
The problem is actually that he stopped prospecting.
45:21
So that's why I'm making today's episode, please.
45:24
All these things we've been talking about prospecting,
45:26
chasing business, mining for gold, you know, try and put some
45:29
money in our account. We have to keep prospecting
45:35
because if you stop, eventually the well runs dry.
45:39
The problem is when the well runs dry, people assume that the
45:41
problem is the attainable economy.
45:43
The problem is not attainable economy.
45:45
The problem is that Shadrack, again not his real name, stopped
45:49
prospecting 6 months ago after getting a yes from two people.
45:55
So get a yes, rejoice, try and tie it up, but then continue
46:02
prospecting immediately tomorrow, next tomorrow.
46:05
Because if he got two yeses after sending out five emails
46:10
every single day and he did it for, I think was it 4 days?
46:14
Think of the opportunities that he could have had to work with
46:17
people over the six months that have passed.
46:21
If he did, if he carried out this advice for the first, let's
46:25
say one month and did free work from for, I don't know, let me
46:31
guess. Let me just say if he did free
46:32
work for maybe 10 people in two months, it's possible that from
46:35
now free work, they could have even transitioned into paying
46:38
clients. There's some people who have
46:39
gotten into businesses like that.
46:42
Let me come in here. I'll do this thing for free.
46:44
We should be able to achieve these results.
46:46
And then you say, oh, Olga, our time is up.
46:49
Or just like like, like we agreed.
46:52
And some people say, oh, look, no, no, no, you've been
46:54
fantastic. You've been this, you've been
46:55
this. If we want to continue this in a
46:58
paying relationship, how much would the thing cost?
47:00
And then you guys start talking money.
47:03
So please, whatever it is that you're doing, whatever
47:05
prospecting plan you come up with, whichever way you're
47:07
trying to get deal flow, even if it's advertising or whatever,
47:10
continue to run this thing steady.
47:13
Don't start, make some progress and then stop.
47:16
If you do, you will be like Shadrach who will reach out
47:20
again six months later to say the economy is harsh, blah,
47:24
blah, blah. This thing is not working.
47:26
It's not that this thing is not working.
47:28
He stopped prospecting. So don't prospect.
47:31
If this is your first time listening to the show, you don't
47:33
know what the EFF prospecting is.
47:35
You want to know what's up, listen to the previous episode
47:37
and then after that, listen to two or three episodes before you
47:41
will get caught up to speed. You know what prospecting is all
47:44
about. And of course, subscribe to the
47:46
podcast wherever it is that you found it because this is the
47:50
kind of good stuff that we talk over here about on the podcast.
47:52
So we can see how we can improve our businesses and we can
47:55
improve our lives and put some good money in our pocket and
47:58
also have some change so that we can flex.
48:01
Because the fact that Tinobu is in control now doesn't mean that
48:05
we should not be flexing again, doesn't mean that we should not
48:07
live our lives. Yeah, it's a bit rough.
48:08
It just means we just means we need to work hard, work harder
48:13
because most of us have already been working hard.
48:16
So that's all for today. If you'd love to connect, the
48:20
phone number is 08064662140. The country code is +234.
48:27
For those of you who are not Nigerian, you can WhatsApp me on
48:30
that number to connect with me on socials.
48:33
Look for Tavi Shima Agidi, that's my name.
48:36
Look for me on LinkedIn. I love meeting you guys, love
48:40
chatting with you guys. For those of you who are just
48:42
looking forward to give free advice, I already told you guys,
48:45
there's close to 1000 episodes of this podcast here already
48:48
recorded. Go ahead listen, knock yourself
48:52
out. If you're using YouTube, use the
48:54
search function so you can search for particular topics
48:56
within the podcast. If you just search Tavishima
49:00
Prospecting, every single thing that I've released on
49:03
prospecting will just show up there in YouTube.
49:06
Start listening with your pen and your paper.
49:08
That's all the free advice that you need.
49:10
If you still try to call me, I'll be able to fish you guys
49:12
out. Don't be a cheap Sobi mean pay
49:15
for it. Well, information is free,
49:17
implementation is what you pay for.
49:20
So just payless implement and let's make progress here.
49:25
So that's all for today. Thank you very much for your
49:28
time and attention. I'll catch you guys at
49:30
tomorrow's episode.