Building Your Dream Client List, One Connection at a Time

Hello and welcome to the show. Today's going to be a noisy episode because I'm out and about now. Previously, what we did on the podcast was we were looking at what to do if you have problems with lead generation. And lead generation is just getting people to raise their hands to show that they might be interested in your product or your service and what you should do if you have that as a problem. Or what kind of training you should invest in or what kind of education you should invest in to solve these sorts of problems.

So in the previous episode, what we discussed was if you have a problem with getting people to signify that they might be interested in your product or service, then you need to invest in education or training around prospecting and educational training around relationship building. So if you want to know what prospecting is or what relation is relationship building is from a business perspective and how it ties back to that larger question of getting people to raise their hand to signify that they might be interested.

Then when you're done listening to this episode, skip back, listen to the previous episode and if you have time, skip to the one or even prior. And then of course, listen with a pen and a paper, write down things that you can carry out today or maybe even tomorrow to move the business forward and you should be on the right path to solving these sorts of problems around lead generation. Again, Simply put, lead generation is just getting people to signify, getting people to show, getting people to indicate, getting people to carry some sort of action that shows that they might be interested in your product or your service.

So since in the previous episode, we had introduced you guys to the ideas around prospecting and relationship building. As for those of you who are newbies listening to the podcast, because for those of you who are still over here on the show, you've been listening for a year or more, you already are a little bit familiar with these ideas. So today we're going to look talk some more about what prospecting is. The reason why like I said,

we're looking about talking about this today is because we are looking at situations where people have serious business problems and the business problems are around revenue. Revenue is just the amount of money that your company brings in, you know, at the end of the month, at the end of the quarter, at the end of the year, at the end of the XYZ period, whichever period you're using to calculate or to count your finances.

So we're looking at revenue problems. So we're not looking at problems that can be solved by leadership or problems that can be solved by management concerns or these sorts of things. So that's what we're concerned about in this episode. So that is why we are having these discussions today because it's all about revenue. If you would like to connect with me and look for opportunities to explore, then call me on 08064662140.

The country code is +234 for those of you who are not Nigerian. And then yeah, connect with me on socials as well. I spend most of my time on LinkedIn. The name to look for is Tavishima Ayede. So let's head straight into the meat of the matter and let's define prospecting. So for those of you who are new listening to the show, I have another definition of prospecting in the previous episode. So definitely listen to that.

Well, prospecting is just all the thinking and all the planning and all the strategizing that you do when you're thinking about or planning around who might be interested in your product or service. Where can you find these people and how to start business conversations with them. Now, prospecting also includes the actual activities that you do to carry this out. The reason why I'm stressing is the definition again, that prospecting is both the thinking, the planning, the strategy, and the execution is because some people think it's either one or the other.

It's a whole thing because there's no point in strategizing and coming up with wonderful plans. But at the end of the day, we leave the planners on our phone or we leave them in our books. We don't do anything that's not really prospecting. So do the thinking, do the planning, but then also do the doing at the end of the day. So when we are trying to figure out who might be interested in our product or service, because this is the most basic, the most pivotal thing that we should be paying attention to when it comes to increasing our sales or when it comes to improving our marketing, The Who is the most important thing.

Because if we do not tackle this aspect of who, who are we chasing? Who are we going to pursue? We're going to waste a lot of time, we're going to waste a lot of money, we're going to waste a lot of our attention running after people that we have no business running after with running after in the 1st place. Because if someone in no conceivable way might need our product or our service, it doesn't matter how many times you talk to these people, they are not going to be a customer for what it is that you have.

Let me give you a common sense example. Your wedding photographer and you're talking to me about wedding photography. I'm already married. So it doesn't matter how much time you spend with me. I do not need the services of a wedding photographer except if I get divorced and I want to marry a pretty young thing, maybe in two years time. Or except if the angle you're using is you're talking to me to know if I have some family members who are still single and blah, blah, blah and stuff like that.

So if there's a scope, no problem. But apart from that, it might not be a good idea to spend lots of time around people like me if you are a young up and coming wedding photographer in the business. So that's just a common sense example. So here's the reason why we have to pay attention to who might be interested in our product or our service. Let's figure out who it is that was supposed to be chasing after without advertising.

Chasing after with our marketing, with our content, with our posts, with our Instagram reels, with our everything. Or when we go outside and we're handing flash to people, we need to figure out The Who. So who might be interested in your products or service in the beginning, just take a very common sense approach. Don't try to be too smart about it and think about the use case scenarios of your product. In other words, you have a product or your service and you think, OK, this product or this service is used for is used for what?

What kind of results does it achieve? What kind of results is it designed to help achieve? And then who are the people that might be looking for these kinds of for these kinds of results? For instance, in America and in the UK, there's this thing where people are tired of being on the Internet and they're looking for dumb phones as you call them, excuse me, or some people call them brick phones because people are trying to be off the Internet.

So if you are going to start selling brick phones in Nigeria, then obviously because brick phones are designed not to be on the Internet, the conversation now will be answering the question now about who might be interested in this protocol service. You'll be thinking about who are people that don't like being on the Internet, have no need on the Internet, or want to have a communication device that is not going to be on the Internet.

So when you think about it in that sense, you can now start thinking of different scenarios. You might think about parents who want a phone at home so that the children can call when they're at home if there's an emergency, but they don't want access to the Internet so that the children don't go up on YouTube. So you can see that if you start asking yourself these questions from a very common sense perspective, you can start drawing up a list of, OK, these people might be interested,

these people might be interested, these people might be interested. So if you're opening a crash, then obviously you're looking out to new parents as your clients. And then from there you might get some ideas. So people might decide, OK, you know what? New parents obviously are in hospitals, so let's go and start hugging out of maternity wards. Some people might say they have just given birth, so that is too early. So anyway, we don't know because I do not want to crash.

So. So what was I? I lost my train of thought. Like I said, today's going to be a noisy episode because the kids are at home. So I thought they were fighting over something. So I was like, so if you're opening a crash, you might be thinking, OK, new parents, people who have children. And then you might be thinking, OK, new parents, we can catch them at the hospital. Some people might say it's too early. Some people say no, that's not too early but we determine that later on down the road.

So church is 1. Some people might say you can find new parents in church. I know someone who used to well, she still sells insurance products and this is one of her own strategies because she sells. There are some insurance products that are offered by Nigerian insurance carriers where you do some sort of life insurance, but with it, it also has benefits for paying children's school fees and things like that. So basically, this is just what my friend used to do.

She's in church. Anybody that does dedication or does child's birthday something, something Thanksgiving to come to the church, she sees children. My friend just knows that OK, at the end of church, I'm heading straight to this couple. I'm going to talk to this couple. So you can see that is a very common sense thing. Who might be interested? Just use common sense for now. We can get fancy later on and start trying to whittle things down later on, but in the beginning, just use a common sense approach.

What are the use case scenarios? What is the benefit of my product or my service? The people who are looking for these kinds of benefits, who might they be? Where do they hang out? Those sorts of things. So back to the crash example. If you're running to schools, I say schools. If you're running to hospitals and if you're running to church to try and catch these people. You might also think, OK, online Instagram, we might start putting out posts on Instagram that are targeted at new mothers or targeted at young couples.

So you can see how just start this thing with a very common sense approach. Yes, if you start with a common sense approach, the pool will be wide, but that's not a problem. Just put down as many people as possible. We can now start cutting through, narrowing through the list, looking at what is most likely, what is most probable or running after who you have most access to. So that is the question of who, because remember for prospecting, we're trying to figure out who might be interested in our product or service.

The next thing is we're trying to figure out where are these people so that we can start chasing them. And then the next thing is how are we going to start having conversations with these people? OK, we're already done 10 minutes. So I think I'll just be able to do The Who and the where. So I've already done The Who. Who might be interested. Now, where do these people hang out? This is also a common sense. You should also take a common sense approach when it comes to these sorts of things.

Think about their behaviour, think about their habits, think about their Hangouts, you know, things like that. That's what will determine whether you go to church or you go to hospitals or you go to beer parlors or you go to ATV station or whatever to go and start looking for these people just by asking yourself these very common sense questions about their behaviour, their habits, their Hangouts, their preferences, those sorts of things.

Now, since I spoke about Uotu on that was 2 podcast episodes ago and her perfumed, her business of selling perfumed oils, perfumes and body oils, let's just use her as an example. So for people who want to buy perfumed oils, my guess, this is my own guess because I'm not in the business room. So for those of you who are in the business, forgive me if I say anything that is not correct here, but it's just me freestyling.

So my guess is that for people who are involved in the perfumed or body oils and perfumed perfumed business, my guess is that we're probably looking for women who want to express something about their personality. We're probably looking at teens and young adults because I remember that stage, you know, that's when we're all trying to feel fly. Everybody's trying to feel well for us guys, you know, feel buff and fresh, young and sexy.

What else? You might also consider middle-aged adult men because these people want to recapture some youth, some sense of youth and vibrancy around them. Then let's see what else. You can also be looking at fashion conscious people. And then we also might also be looking at people who attend occasions and events. So like I said in the beginning, when we're thinking about The Who, like I said, if we're using a common sense approach, you'll find out that this list is plenty.

And you can see that yes, this is quite a varied list. Women looking to express their personality, teens and young adults coming of age, you know, they're trying to make a good impression. middle-aged men, they become old, they want to now smell youthful and vibrant and then fashion conscious people and then people who attend occasions and events. But The thing is, when you look at this list of people now and you start asking yourself some common sense questions about their behaviour, their habits,

their Hangouts, it will now determine where and where you should start going. And we can now narrow down the list based on what is available to us or based on what is practical to us. So if you feel like you've lost touch with teens and young adults because maybe you're old, let's say maybe you are, I don't know, 40 or 55 getting into this business and you feel like you've lost touch with the teens and young adults, then no problem.

Just scratch them off the list for now and go after other people. If you're of a certain age and you think, OK, people who sell, people who attend occasions and events, OK, that might determine whether, for instance, you might be able to get pop up stores and things like that at events. Maybe at Abuja has this family, family fun fair or something. It used to be an annual thing. Used to be an annual thing. But I think after, after COVID,

it's been a while since I've seen them anyway. But let's just assume that they're still in business. So you're coming to this thing and it is Abuja family, family and fun. Fair. So you might consider getting a stand at these sorts of events because you think, OK, worst case scenario, I should be able to capture women who want to express something about their personality. I might be able to capture fashion conscious people because Abuja people like to, you know,

show up in style, decked out, looking good. And then there's this whole class thing going on. You know, you want to show that you're of a certain that you've arrived. And then you might also be able to capture people who attend events and occasions and then let's see what else. Yeah, I have so middle age and adult men, they'll be there because this is family fun fair. So of course wifey is going to drag husband and say, look, you don't come out with us, You don't do anything with us while going out as a family.

Let us go so you can see how draw up the list, no matter how long, then the pace. Then depending on what you have access to or what is most realistic, you'll not be able to come up with a plan of OK, I can do this easily. I can do this easily, I can do this one tomorrow, I can do this one next week. And then that way we don't have to get trapped in this whole thing of coming up with strategy upon strategy and then thinking and thinking, this would be nice, That would be nice.

At the end of the day, we have plenty of ideas, but then two months has passed, we haven't done anything. So that's just an example. Then on the social media and for the people who hang out online, you might be looking for relevant hashtags because remember, we're talking about perfumes, body oils, scented oils, those sorts of things. So you could be looking for Instagram checking hashtags around perfumes, around fragrances, around beauty,

around skin care, self-care. You might also engage with beauty and skin care influencers. You might also think about Facebook groups around similar ideas because Facebook groups are still a thing when I used to try and sell scrap metal, scrap metal to to people in Lagos because in Lagos or going around those areas, they have very vibrant scrap metal markets. So I used to poke around some of those groups. So there are lots of Facebook groups.

We could also maybe like blogs, collaborate with bloggers. You can also think e-commerce, so Jumia and Conga, or you can also think about department stores and boutiques, which is actually something that Okoto was already doing because she has two people in Abuja that are distributors for her, for her brand, even though she's just been two months in the business. So that's something that you can already do. So you can see how prospecting,

even though the name sounds big and the name sounds technical, you can see that the application, it's actually something that is very simple and you can start with common sense and then get fancy later. So who might be interested? Just use some common sense. What am I selling? What are the benefits it provides? Who are the kind of people that are looking for these kind of benefits? That already starts giving you a sense of it can be this person,

it can be that person, it can be these folks or that folks. Then next thing, where do these people hang out? Again, common sense with knowledge you know about their behavior, what their habits about their Hangouts. In fact, you can even do some online research because with tools now like Gemini and ChatGPT, you can actually put it down there. You know, I'm an Abuja based vendor who sells perfumes and something or else who are the kinds of people who will be most likely to use this kind of product.

Hit enter and then see what it says. It might give you an interest, some interesting ideas about people that you can chase that you have not considered before. So common sense or do some simple research using AI tools and then we've already spoken about some activities that you can engage on online and partnerships and things like that when it comes to chasing after these people. So this is just the first step when it comes to prospecting The Who and the where.

And these are the sorts of training and education that you should be looking into if you have a problem with lead generation, getting people to show that they might be interested in your product or your service. So Allos here, this was your own question, or rather, this is a response to your own question. I hope that you're still listening and I hope you've been paying attention and I hope you've been taking notes for your own business since you say you're also new in the space.

Then what we're going to do in the next episode is, since we've already looked at The Who, who are these people? The where? Where do they hang out? Next episode, we're going to start exploring the how. How are we going to start yawning with these people? How are we going to start having business conversations with these people? How are we going to start toasting these people? How are we going to start shaking them? How are we going to start?

You know, whatever it is you want to call it, we're going to start with the how. So again, if you'd like to connect and explore opportunities with me, the phone number is 08064662140. The country code is +234. And then for socials, connect with me on LinkedIn. My name is Tavishma Aide. Thank you very much for your time and attention. I'll catch you guys at the next episode.