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Hello and welcome to the show. Today I would like to run through, I'd like to comment on something that I saw on a social media post on threads because once in a while on the podcast, I'd like to give a comment on, you know, things floating about in the, you know, on the interwebs. I'd like to give a quote, or rather I'd like to give a comment from a sales and business development perspective, you know, from how a sales person would look at some of these things.
And I came across a really interesting post on Threads about how networking isn't for hungry or angry people, or rather how networking isn't for hungry and angry people. Or by the way, just for those of you who don't know, because there are some people who still don't know about Threads. Threads is the Twitter ish competitor kind of app that was invented by Zuckerberg and Co. So I think if you're looking for it, you have to look for, I
think when you search in the, in your app, in your, what's it called, Play Store and stuff like that, you search Threads by Instagram and then it comes up. So it was rumoured to be a Twitter killer Twitter competitor. But so far I don't think things have panned out quite well for the app. But anyway, I'm there just checking it out because I'm looking for more places to report, post my podcast content on. So I've been playing around on threads anyway.
So like I said, the post on Threads was about how networking isn't for hungry and angry people. So I guess that's what I want to look at today, whether that is true, how much of it is true, and then what can we make of it from a sales and business development perspective. Now, if by that comment that sales sorry that networking isn't for hungry and angry people, we mean that people who have people who are coming into networking with the wrong sentiment if they're coming at it from the place of the place of lack, meaning I don't have enough.
If that's the driving sentiment, I don't have enough. I can't eat today. I want to be able to eat today and pay school fees today. If you're coming at it from that angle or if you're coming at it from the angle of ill will focused on me, me, me, I want to prove myself right. I want to do this, I want to do that. So if you're looking at it from that angle that what are your sentiments when you're coming into networking, then yeah, of course, the answer is definitely yes, that if you're hungry and if you're angry, then networking is not the thing for you.
But The thing is, it's not just networking. You'll find that most business activities won't be for people who have that frame of mind that is either being hungry or desperate because you don't know where your next paycheck is going to come from or or they're coming at this from anger, resentment, ill will, being self-centered and those sorts of things. So yeah, now let's break this down for a richer understanding of what networking is and how to go about it, because I think those are the key things to take out of these sorts of conversations when you see them on social media.
So definitions, of course, you can define networking in any number of ways. But over here on the show, the way that I like to look at networking is that networking is not about handing out business cards and networking is not about giving elevator pitches. I can't stress this enough because lots of people go for networking sessions. In fact, the last one that I was at earlier in the year, I made a podcast episode about that, that was at the British Council Alumni UK events.
And that's for people who graduated from UKUK based universities. And I think that it is the UK's way of what's that word? I can't remember the word that I'm looking for anyway, but you know, amongst American universities, you have these these things where they have a strong alumni networks and things like that. And because those alumni networks are strong, it provides marketing opportunities throughout the different generations, and it keeps the thing going and going.
So some people attend certain American schools. You know those schools. No need for me to say what the schools are. And they have the strong alumni associations like back in Nigeria, there's the Nigerian Harvard Association or something like that. So, you know, these organizations are there and they've been there for a very long time, you know, from the 80s, or at least I was aware, I wasn't aware of it from the 80s, but I know some people in the 80s who are, who are members.
So, so you get the gist. If there's a Nigerian Harvard society or something, then of course, you know, with the prestige and with the networking, then people want to attend Harvard more and then on and on and on. And I assume that Alumni UK, as the UK government's efforts are trying to get that sort of thing going so that with strong Alumni UK networks, it will serve as a marketing channel, channel of more Nigerians attending UK
universities. So yeah, so that was the last formal networking session that was at, because remember, networking can be formal, it can be informal because when you go for your children's PTA or PTC, like my son corrected me that it's no longer Parent Teacher Association, it's now the Parent Teacher Conference. So when they go for the PTA or the PTC, you know, you're just chilling, the other parents there, you're chatting.
So networking is happening all the time. Your kids school, what else? If you have hobbies, you're a member of Abuja Archery Association or maybe you play chess like I do, there's networking going on there. And then of course there's networking going on at formal events like the British Council Alumni UK thing that I mentioned. So the reason why I'm stressing that networking is not about handing out business cards and elevator pitches is because lots of people show up to the PTA or to the PTC just to see how many business cards they can hand out to other parents.
And you're not going to grow your business that way. In fact, you're being an ASS if you keep doing that because you'll be putting lots of people off. And then after a while, people just know that, oh, you're that obnoxious parent who's always handing out business cards. So showing up to the PTC to hand out business cards or showing up to the chess club to hand out business cards, or showing up to Alumni UK, British Council Alumni UK event to hand out business cards is not effective networking.
In fact, that's not what networking is about. It's also not about giving elevator pitches because it's the same thing. There's sports Day in school. You show up not just to support your child, but because you want to give elevator pitches to every single parent that is there. After a while, people just know you're like, OK, that's that obnoxious father, that's that obnoxious mum. And yeah, you have the reputation. Everybody gives you space.
And even if people want what it is that you have, I'm sure somebody will think like, man, this baby's really pushy or this guy's really pushy. I'd rather deal with somebody else. So networking, not about handing out business cards, not about giving elevator pitches. However, am I saying that we should not hand out business cards and we should not give elevator pitches? By all means do, but the focus is not on handing out the card or giving the elevator pitch or telling every single person,
this is me, this is what I can do, This is why I'm the best. Rather, we should be trying to figure out who is in the room so that we can build profitable relationships around them in the future. The mistake that you business card and elevator pitch people are making is you're assuming that networking is what is happening now that we're in the room. Networking starts in the room, but the real networking is what happens after the event is over.
What you do after the PTA or the PTC is done is what networking is. When you guys finish on the chess club meeting, the phone calls that you make, the houses that you visit, the messages that you send, that is where the real networking happens. Networking happens afterwards. So because of that, what you should be doing now that you're in the room, now that you're at the Alumni UK meeting, now that you are at the Christian Mothers Association meeting, now that you are at the Association of Muslim Accountants in Nigeria,
You know, while you're at that session, you're trying to figure out who is in the room that is worth building a relationship with in the future, worth building a profitable relationship in the future. So if you do that and you're handing out business cards and giving elevator pitches with that in view that you're trying to figure out who is worth spending time with here, then your elevator pitches, your business cards, not going to be a problem.
But don't go into networking thinking that is about talking about you saying this is me. This is why I am the best, This is why I am the greatest. This is why you should do business with me. This is why I'm the greatest thing that God has created and blah, blah, blah, No is going there, walking up to people. Hey, how you doing? Ask questions about them. Why are they here? How did they join the association? What line of business are they into?
Are there any problems that they're facing in their business? What are their goals, business or personal or religious or spiritual or whatever. You should be having all those sorts of questions. Now, the reason why this is a sales and business development perspective on the topic of networking, it's because sales people, they know there's no salesperson who assumes that you can go to a gig or go to a whatever today and hand out business cards today and then to more people who start calling you and getting business.
Sales people know that. So that's the reason why you won't find any salesperson or rather any seasoned salesperson going about an Alumni UK event or a Muslim Accountants Association of Nigeria event handing out business cards today, thinking that they'll get clients tomorrow. That's why sales people go to these sort of events and they try to, they work the room, they have conversations with everybody and they're trying to figure out who is here, who is worth working to tomorrow, who is worth going to visit tomorrow, who is worth calling tomorrow, who is worth sending a LinkedIn request to tomorrow,
you know, blah, blah, blah. So networking is about reading the room, reading the context to see who is worth having conversations with. Now, if you have a conversation with people now, you can figure out who should you build relationships with later. So this is the problem for a hungry person. A hungry person needs Business Today. So the problem for a hungry person is networking would require delayed gratification. So yeah, that's the problem.
That's why if you're hungry, networking is going to be hard because a hungry person needs Business Today. But networking is looking towards building relationships that will yield fruit later. And the hard part is even that later. We don't even know when that later is. The business might come next week, next week, the business might come next month, it might come in six months, or it might come in three years. The thing is, we don't even know.
So that's why if you're hungry, it's going to be rough. If you're hungry, what should you do? If you're hungry, what you need to do is direct response marketing and other kinds of activities that you can do today and you can expect rewards in the near future. So if you're doing direct response marketing today and today is January 1st, and you're hoping that business will start coming in January 15th, Yeah, that's possible.
But you can't do networking today, January 1st. I think that January 15th business will come in. It might. Chances are it's not going to. So if you're hungry, direct response marketing. Now, what about angry people? If you're trying to figure out who is in the room and who is worth talking to, it involves you to be other oriented, thinking about other people. You have to do that because you already know who you are, you already know what your agenda is, and you already know what the outcome you're striving for.
So if I attend an Alumni UK event or if I attend the Muslim Forensic Accountants Association of Nigeria, if I attend that association meeting, I already know who I am and I know who my agenda is and I know what outcome I want to get from attending this meeting. So if I'm going around telling everybody that I am the best Muslim accountant in Nigeria, I graduated first class from University of Ibadan in 1970, whatever. And basically I'm just going around telling everybody that I'm just going to put people off.
Nobody needs to know that I graduated first class and that I'm the best and nobody can do forensic networking, sorry, forensic accounting like I like, I like I do. I should be going around trying to figure out who is this other person that I'm talking to? What are their agenda? What are their outcomes? What are the things that are important to them? Because if I go to this networking thing and I spend one hour talking to 20 people saying I'm the best, I graduated first class, do business with me,
nobody knows this thing more than me. I'm certified by the international forensic. Something, something, something, whatever, then that is all I've done. I've spent 2-3 hours talking about myself and I have no idea who was in the room. But if I go and talk to other people and figure out who their agenda is, the outcomes they're looking for and things like that. After the meeting, after this networking session, I can now do some ruminating by myself, like,
oh, OK, this guy was interesting. Oh, by the way, collect people's business cards. So even though you're not going to be handing out yours, definitely collect theirs and collect phone numbers. And then I'm running through the list of people I'm thinking like, oh, OK, I spoke to with, with, OK, no, no, a Muslim would with you. That's not possible. OK, So I spoke to Alhaji, this person. I spoke to Alhaji, that person. I spoke to this person.
I spoke to Hajiya, this person, and OK, well, this person is into this, this, I'm into that, that, that, and then you can start seeing how their agenda aligns with your agenda. Now when you see how these things align, this is where the real networking starts. You now start making phone calls. You not start making office visits, LinkedIn and social media connection requests and things like that to start doing relationship building with those people who have similar agendas like yours because there's an alignment.
Or since you know how well you have a sense of what the alignment might be like, you might even call up these people with a proposal that might be of mutual benefit. So you can see how the networking doesn't happen at the Association of Nigerian Islamic Forensic Accountants or the British Council Alumni UK event. The networking is what happens afterwards. You do some reflection, do some rumination, look at those business cards.
OK, this person is worth spending time with. Cool. This other person was Yani OPTEI. Don't think they're serious. I don't like them. My spirit doesn't align with them. And then you throw away that person's business card. That's if you want to be ruthless. So the networking is what happens afterwards. When you start calling people, you say, hey, how'd you hear so and so? Do you Remember Me? This is this is OK. Let me see.
What Muslim name can I think of this is Haruna. You spoke to me from some some some some undergraduate of remember We spoke, we both went to OAU said, oh, OK, yes, I remember you. Oh, hello, ma'am, blah, blah, blah. See, that's where the networking starts. You finish the event and you think this Hajia Hassanatu was an interesting person to talk to because you guys both went to the same school and you're both interested in this and this and you're trying to explore these kinds of business opportunities.
So after the event, you call Haja and her two up, introduce yourself. She won't remember because let's face it, even though she took your business card, she hasn't stored your number on her phone. Lots of people just take these cards and don't store the numbers. And then you start the conversation from there. You know, basically just let her know you are that interesting guy from OAU and you remember this part of the conversation that you guys had.
There are some initiatives that you guys are working at in your own forensic firm, forensic accounting firm, and you think there might be opportunities to do business. So is Madam has Hassanatu, is she free for a meeting next week Wednesday at 8:00 AM? Of course you would say she's, she's cool for that because who doesn't want to make business? And then you go out and see her in the office and you guys start chatting, you start building mutual relationships and then you start talking about specific proposals that can be of benefit to both of you.
And that is where the networking happens. Networking doesn't happen at the event. Networking happens after the event. So the other business people who are going to teach you about networking and focus on the event, focus on the event. But for those of us who have a sales and business development background, we know that at that event, nothing will happen. The event is just where we're sorting. We're just feeding each other out.
Who is who, who is worth this, you know, that's we're just feeding each other out. The real networking starts afterwards. So to be able to do all of this, all these other focus activity, you have to let go of yourself for a while because being in the room means you're doing detective work or psychologist work on other people. If you are an angry person and you're constantly overrun by your ideas of what people owe you or the injustices that have been meted out to you or I'll treatment against you or how people are not giving you your due or they don't recognize you for how handsome or how brilliant or how beautiful or how spectacular or how talented you are, If that's your frame of mind, you are not going to be able to be effective at networking.
So if you're an angry person, what should you do? Well, apart from talking to a psychologist or talk to your imam or talk to your pastor, apart from that you can use the anger as your fuel. There's some people who use that as their fuel. They use that as a chip on their shoulder to show people that, oh, they're right after all. So like, oh, people are not rating me, I'll be, maybe because I'm short, I'll be. Or from the wrong packet of the country, I will show them.
I'll continue to grind. Eventually you make it so they will teach those people who look down on me, or I will teach that girl who refused to date me when I was in uni, or we teach all those stupid boys who didn't look at me when I was in uni. So, yeah, you can use that as a chip on your shoulder. Although is there a healthy motivation to have to being successful in business and in life? I don't know. I'll leave that to the psychologists and the pastors and the preachers to answer.
So if you're hungry and you're angry, networking, Yep, it's not for you because hunger requires you to focus on the short term. That is going to put something in your belly today, maybe next week. Anger requires you to pay attention to yourself and not other people. However, even if you're hungry and even if you're angry, I still recommend Shah that you put in the work and do the networking because if you do effective networking today, it means you will not go hungry next year.
Think about networking as farming. You're farming crops and you're looking towards the hardvest. So network today so you won't go hungry next year. So even if you're hungry still just it's hard, but you know, don't go on aggressive sales mode. Just pipe low, you know, calm down, do the networking right, Network today. You won't go hungry next year. Then networking today also means building alliances and building strategic imperatives today that will make you a hit next year.
So even if you're angry and you want to blow, you want people to see you, that you've arrived, that you've been right all along, all those people that. Said in your class that you will never succeed. Everybody that chose to hang out with the cool kids, they didn't hang out with you because you know you are one kind or you came from the wrong kind of family or something like that. They're working today. Building those alliances today means that you're going to heat next year and then all those naysayers will see you and we proved wrong.
They'll be like, oh, so that Razz boy in our class, is he the one? There's a baller like that. There's nine billionaire him and Presido. They're now 5:00 and 6:00. Yeah. OK. So networking today, make sure that you blow next year or in two years or three years or whatever. So whether you're hungry or angry today, networking is still one of the surest ways to get food and to get revenge on people next year. So still do it.
But for those of you who are hungry and you want to try direct response marketing because that's what I spoke about, actually, you should be trying two things, direct response marketing and direct response copywriting. How do you go about that? Well, it's very simple. Direct response marketing is just a strategy that you use in business to try and get results from people today, provided you know who the target or the target audience is.
So direct response marketing is not about building brand awareness. This is not about people should be aware from aware of who I am or what I can do. You're trying to get immediate responses from people now. That is why it's called direct response. So all the things you put out are designed to get people to make a purchase, to buy today or to sign up for your newsletter today or to request For more information today. Because if they join your newsletter today or they give you information today, you can try to sell them something tomorrow.
But you can see that direct response marketing is we're trying to get something now, now, now, now, now that can only give us money now if we get them to buy now or that we can use to start pursuing them next week to try and get money from them next week. So the key characteristics of direct response marketing is #1 measurable, measurable, sorry, forgive me, measurable results. You can look at conversion rates and that's stuff you see now why topics we talk about over here on the podcast, you see how they tie into other things eventually because we had the whole series on conversion rates.
So you check conversion rates, return on investment. You know, if I put 59 in, how much money did I get out? And then customer acquisition costs. You advertised here, you got the customer, how much did you spend for that customer to come? Then you also need clear cost to action when you're doing direct response marketing. So if this is not branding, you have to be direct buy now by today to take advantage of this 20% offer.
Call 07, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Now sign up to XYZ or call today deadline Friday 21st July. Something, something, something you can see that all that kind of language is people should buy now or take action now. And then he has a strong focus on the offer, you know, 50% off, 80% off or do this to achieve so, so, so, so and so and that and that and that you have, you know, plenty of language about why this offer is so great.
You're highlighting the benefits, the value proposition to the people that you are talking to. So now direct response copywriting, you know, is a marriage, you know, they both work the same way. So direct response copywriting is just the the written, the things that you write that are trying to persuade people and try to compel people to take immediate action. So that's the relationship between direct response marketing and direct response copywriting directs response marketing is sort of like the strategy.
Direct response copywriting is the tactics, the actual words that you are writing on the sheet of paper or that you're typing out on the computer screen. Now, those are the words that are going to be responsible for getting contacts or prospects into customers. So when you're thinking direct response copywriting things you'd be paying attention to, your headline should be clear and compelling. It should grab the reader's attention and promise a solution to the problem.
Like I was listening to a podcast and I thought this was a really interesting example. Oh, by the way, if you have children in the car, now is the time to close the children's ears. And so the headline, the headline that the guy proposed was, is your husband struggling with erectile dysfunction? Are you tired or feeling a weak blank, blank, blank? Then buy this watermelon herb, mix it with so, so, so, so so and get pregnant within three weeks or something like that.
Now I know that that's a ridiculous harm copy, but it you get the idea. You know who the audience is. You know what the problem is. You have a very clear and compelling head, compelling headline. Are you suffering this problem? Anybody who is hanging suffering that problem that yours will perk up. This is the solution. Buy my thing and use it this way and this will be the result. So the benefits the cop copious has to focus on the benefits or the results.
So like in this example that the guy gave, which is buy this thing today and guaranteed you'll be pregnant in two months. So it's giving strong benefits for the person who is listening. Then of course, call to action. That whole thing that I was saying of by today before 7:00 PM or e-mail. So, so, so and so before 25th of July, something, something, something or call now to take advantage of 20% price off or whatever.
That's a very urgent call to action then. So the things that you're going to be doing, if you're going to be running these kinds of things, direct response copywriting, direct response marketing, you'll be focusing on sales letters, e-mail campaigns, landing pages. Some people say television commercials, you know, television and radio advertising. Although in my own opinion, SHA, if you have enough money for television advertising and radio advertising, then I guess you know you are not that hungry to begin with because people who have money for TV adverts, you know, they have, they have bar.
So you can't say you're hungry if you have enough bar to run TV adverts. So direct response marketing and copywriting, the work hand in hand for these effective campaigns that generate results, immediate results and measurable results. When I say immediate, please bear in mind though, there's nothing you will do in sales that if you do it today on Monday, results will start showing up on Tuesday. Well, reasonably speaking, if you're doing your direct response marketing right, if you run it today on Monday, at least by Monday next week, you should have started seeing some, some kind of results.
You know, people calling people SMS ING or people placing orders or whatever. So everybody be involved in networking, including those of you who are hungry and angry. But if you're hungry and networking is not for you, focus on e-mail campaigns, Focus on landing pages, because these are the things that will get you direct sales action TV commercials. You have money for that. That means you're not hungry after all, Might as well.
Yeah, run your TV commercials, but then try networking and things are not that desperate for you yet. e-mail campaign, you can run it cheaply. Landing pages, especially with weeks and all these things that people can run themselves, you know you can. You can do that by yourself. So that's it for today. So please connect with me on WhatsApp. The phone number is 08064662140 and the country code is +234. Then connect with me on LinkedIn.
My name is Tavishima Ayede, I'm the host of the show. You can confirm the correct spelling of my name because that's what you used to search for me on LinkedIn. Confirm that from the link. We're currently listening to this episode, so thanks for your time and attention. I'll catch you guys at the next episode.