Content that Converts: Crafting Value for Business Growth

Hello and welcome to the show. I'm out and about on a Monday morning, a wonderful rainy Monday morning over here in Abuja. So let's get straight down to business. The question that I'm going, OK, this is not a question because I've gone off of the questions and I'm running through a list of stuff that I came up with a while ago that I thought would be useful for you guys to hear about over here on the podcast. That even though they are not specifically related to sales,

you can see how if you do these sorts of things, right, they should help you increase the number of profitable conversations that you're having with people on a daily basis. And then of course, the more profitable, more fruitful conversations you're having with people every day, hopefully at the end of the week, at the end of the month, you should be having an increase in your coffers. So that's the idea behind it. So yesterday, I can't remember what we spoke about, but I think it was content related and I

think it's also similar to what it is that we're going to talk about today. So this is your first time of listening to the podcast. Once you're done listening to this episode, rewind or skip back, listen to yesterday's episode so you have a larger context of what it is that we've been talking about. Yes, what we spoke about yesterday was content related. And today we're going to look at how to create a valuable content to grow your business.

Aha, yesterday, yes, content is king. That's what we spoke about yesterday and then today, how to create valuable content to grow your business. And then of course, there's going to be some overlap. There's going to be some bleeding for stuff that we discussed yesterday and today. So first time listening to the show, skip back, listen to yesterday's and you'll get more Nuggets of value out of that. Now Speaking of value, because I

just said Nuggets of value, we're talking about how to create valuable content. So the keyword here is value. So I might as well just go ahead and look at what value means because a whole bunch of you are going to see stuff on the Internet like if you want to build your business, create valuable content and then you just hit the road. You know, you get your laptop, you get your microphones, you get your camera, you get your whatever, and then you start producing what you think is valuable content.

But that's not a good way to start off any enterprise because you need to be clear on what it is you're doing from the get go. Because like that wise saying says, OK, well, I can't remember that why saying? But the whole point of the some of the wisdom literature about all this stuff is you need to know where it is that you're heading to before you take the first step. Because if you're not clear on where you're heading and you take the first step, you don't know if you're heading in the wrong direction.

So that's the gist of the whole thing. So we need to start off by figuring out what is value in the 1st place before we start trying to create valuable content. Now some of you are going to say valuable like obviously it means what is good, obviously it means what is best and I would agree to value what is good, what is the best. The problem is a whole lot of us start trying to create valuable content by producing what we think is valuable.

We start off having the conversation in a self referential kind of way. So what that means is you have a young man like me who wants to put out valuable content to promote his business and so the person starts off by doing what they think is valuable. In other words, I would start off doing what I think is valuable. And I must confess, yes, me doing this podcast talking about sales and business development, this is what I think is valuable because apparently what the market think is valuable is motivational stuff.

Aspire to acquire so that you can refire and blah, blah, blah. Because people who make those kinds of podcasts, they, they get that's where the attention is at, let me put it that way. So yes, I'm starting off on what I think is valuable. Yes, so I confess I'm doing the same thing. But however, because I'm looking at things from a sales and business development perspective, I always remember that there's a business context to these sorts of things.

And of course, when we're talking about business context, it is not me that is the guiding lights, but it's the audience, the people that I'm trying to talk to. Because you can't sell something that the market doesn't find to be valuable. It's one thing that you're going to learn community business. So if you think you've invented something that is the latest, the greatest, the nicest, the fastest, the whatever best, but the market disagrees, then you're not going to move forward.

So from a sales and business development perspective, we learn to take our traction, we learn to take our signals, we learn to take our growth opportunities or whatever from what the market says. And so it is because of that that those of us who have traditional sales and business development backgrounds or trainings, we look at value through the lens of the customer. And in that case, value. You can look at value through different frameworks.

In fact, there's one that I like that was come up with by Victor Antonio. He is an American sales trainer. I think he's from, I think he's from Compton, you know, the same neighbourhood as Ice Cube Abby. Is that Ice Cube Abby iced tea. Well, I know he's from same neighbourhood as one of the Ices, honestly, ISIS, I don't mean ISIS, not ISIS, not the terrorist network. I mean ISIS as in ICE and then S because it's ice cube.

And then there's ice ice T that's for those of you who are seventies, 80s kids maybe, OK, no 90s kids, you will know about ice cube and ice T. So yeah, he's he's from that neighborhood, but he graduated with a degree in physics, Sharp boy, graduate degree in physics or something like that, but got tired of an engineer career. Once you realize that sales people make more money and then that's how you transition into sales.

And I came across some of his material on the podcast I listened to from time and time again. So Victor Antonio, he is also big on YouTube. So for those of you who don't like podcast, you rather consume stuff on YouTube, check out YouTube Victor and Tonio Antonio. So he talks about the value matrix that is the three FS. Now, even though he calls it the three FS, strictly speaking, only one of them is an F because the other one is Aph and the other one is APS.

So the value matrix is either physical or financial or psychological. In fact, that last one shouldn't even be an F because that's not even an F sound. But anyway, for fun of it, he calls you three FS. So let's view more Victor Antonio and go with his 3F framework. So physical, financial, psychological, and you should be talking in terms of benefits. So the content that you're going to produce or when you're talking about your business or talking about your service or talking about your whatever,

you're trying to talk in terms of what is the physical benefit that somebody is going to get? What is the financial benefit that somebody is going to get? What is the psychological benefit that somebody is going to get from interacting with your business content, interacting with your product, interacting with your service, interacting with your whatever that you're trying to put out into the universe, as we say these days.

So physical benefits, I guess that it's obvious, you know, you have something nice, you have something sweet. You will get stronger, you will get sexier, you will get more beautiful, you will grow taller, you will have a bigger bum, bum, you will, you know, whatever. So that's physical. Then financial, you're going to make more money, you're going to double your income, you're going to triple X, you're going to increase your savings, you're going to save on costs.

You're going to OK, I run out of ideas, but you get the gist when it comes to financial. So those are benefits. Then psychological, you're going to be happier, you're going to be more in love, you're going to be full of Wellness. You're going to be at peace, you're going to be living your best life, you're going to be you get the gist. So in putting our business content, those are the kind of things that we're trying to hit with the content, physical benefits, financial benefits and psychological benefits.

And like I said, when it comes to business, we are not being self referential. So we're looking out to the market. So we're talking in terms of benefits of what other people find valuable. So it's not what I find valuable, it's what other people find valuable. And that's one mistake. Then I find my brothers and sisters in the tech space quite haven't gotten yet. Because I can remember being at one program where this guy was talking about how he had just sold something to what's it called The the they do mobile phones in there in the east.

They're in Abuja. They're in Lagos. Slot. Yeah, Slot, I think Slot is nationwide now. I think they're nationwide now. I think I heard that they even in Kano. So yeah, so Slot sells mobile phones. In fact, that's where I got, this is my mobile phone from my Jomi 13 CI got that from Slot in Abuja and Central Business district. So the fellow was talking about how he had sold something to Slot so that the receipts that people get that be the invoicing or whatever it is, all that paperwork, you know, when you buy your brand new phone.

He had done the whole thing so that he has sold it to a particular branch so that the receipts wouldn't be physically printed up on paper. It will be generated via e-mail and sent to the customer's phone or something like that. I can't remember the details. And this guy was talking about environmental sustainability and blah, blah, blah and or what not. And in my mind, I was thinking, look, this young man, you've lost the plot.

You think that this guy in slot bought this thing because he's environmentally conscious. But as a business, as a business operator, I could tell that the reason why the person bought it is because of the savings, the financial savings that you will get. Now, of course you don't save. You don't. It's not that expensive when you buy all these small, small rolls of paper for the POS and for the receipt machine and everything.

So it's not expensive. You're buying this thing five, 500-8800, you know something like that. It's not, it's not expensive. But The thing is when you have a couple of franchises around the nation, let's say there are 20 slot offices in Abuja and maybe another 20 or 30 in Lagos and then how many in the East and then how many in Kano. If you are able to save 5500 eight, 800 on a weekly basis on reams of paper multiplied by the number of offices, then you know, it adds up to a whole bunch.

So you know, he kept talking in terms of environmental sustainability, the planet and blah, blah, blah. And I really don't think Nigerians are there yet. So I think for people who are buying this sort of solutions, they are thinking about it more from the either operational efficiency, like OK, this thing is automatic. My sales boy, my sales girl, they just key into the thing, into the system and then it's all there. And then we're not spending 5500

every week buying money on the POS rooms of paper and this and this and that and that. But the fellow kept talking about this thing in, in, in terms of sustainability. Now I've been looking out at slot offices. So the last time I was there, I was looking to see if there was any change. And of course, we're still using the paper system. So I guess that thing didn't quite catch on. I think maybe he was able to sell to one location, but he wasn't able to sell to others.

And I think it's because he was speaking about it in the wrong terms. So we have to speak in terms of what people find to be valuable. So you might be in the tech space and truly, truly, truly what you're trying to do is you're trying to save the environment. But if you're in a place like Nigeria where people don't give a hoot about the environment, the average person is just trying to live. So if people don't care about those sorts of things, you need to start speaking in terms of what they find valuable.

So if you walk into a slot office or another business and then you start talking about the environment and sustainability, but he said you go in there saying, hey bro, how are you doing? I just came from another slot office and I was able to sell the solution to them. With this solution, I've been able to save 30,000 naira every month of their business expenses. Is this something you're interested in looking at? You know, that is a different conversation.

So you can not only leave Slot have that conversation, you can now go to another place like let's say office is office and more in Abuja, the cell stationary office and more. You can now go to office and more. And that will be the same conversation that you have with them. Like look, I just came out from slot. They're able to buy this system from me and I've been tracking over the last three months, I've been able to save them on average 40K every month in operational expenses.

You know, is this something you'd be interested in having a look at and you'd have people be willing to have conversations with you because you're talking in terms of what it is that they can understand. So instead of going there talking about the environment, you come here, you talk about money because of their business operation. My guess is money might be one thing to hit them from the beginning. So, but bottom line, in our general business approach, not just in our business approach but also in producing content online, we should be speaking in those terms.

What are the physical benefits? What are the financial benefits? What are the psychological benefits? And the benefits should not be benefits that you think are valuable, but benefits that the other person finds to be valuable. So that is what you should be addressing with your content. So back to the example that I gave yesterday about the lady who does what was it skin care? So skin care for mums between the ages of X&YI can't remember the the age range and especially those who are new mothers who have just given birth, who have two or three children, but with children not older than 12.

Yeah, because we did the ICP exercise. And so looking at WhatsApp messages, receipts, you know, receipts, payments that people had made and stuff, we're able to figure out that, oh, OK, these are the best people. These are people where you're getting most of your money from. So this is who you should be targeting, your content should be targeting. So that kind of online content now should be around physical benefits. You're talking in terms of the mummies mummy.

If you buy my cream, if you buy my soap, this is how it will make your skin feel. This is how it will restore you to your pre pregnancy glow. Or this is how cream or soap will help you adapt to this new skin type that you have now. Physical benefits, what else? This cream will keep baby skin nice and smooth. Say bye bye to nappy rash. This skin will keep baby's skin tone even. By the way, I really don't think we should be coming up with skin care products that should be making baby's skin smooth or even or lightening or toning because there's a time for all that.

When we're grown up, we can all worry about whether our skin is even, whether it's toned or whether it's, you know, whatever. So if I start bleaching right now, oh, by the way, I don't bleach. I'm not naturally light skinned, although my wife and my children disagree. I think I'm light skinned. My my wife says I'm I'm black, my children say I am brown. But anyway, that's topic for another day. So if I'm bleaching or I'm turning, that's me.

I'm an adult. I can decide. I really don't think it's a good idea for us to start bleaching our babies and start turning our babies. So for you mommies and daddies out there, you know, you have a three month old, a six month old, I think it's too early to be thinking OK, baby has a dark spot or baby's knees are too black or whatever. Just leave all those stuff for now. And I'm not a doctor anyway, so speak to your doctor.

So I was like, yeah, so your content will be talking about physical benefits. So mommy, this is how your going to be restored baby. This is how your going to be retired restored. Say bye bye to nappy rash. You can also speak in terms of financial benefit. You can say, hey mommies and daddies, I know that you're used to buying imported cream from Johnsons and Johnsons at 150 K every month. But I have this Nigerian alternative which is EPCMPVF

something 13 with sunscreen, everything, Navdark number, blah, blah, blah, which is just as good as Johnson and Johnsons, in fact even better because we use local sheer butter and something, something, something in our products. And if you use our products, you're going to be able to save on half the amount that you do from importing all these things from Johnson and Johnson's in the UK and America. So the typical Johnson and Johnson's bottle goes for 12,000

naira for 100ML. But we have been able to come up with a superior product and you're only going to spend 65 per bottle, you know, blah, blah, blah. So that is also a possible angle that someone can take in trying to promote their business. So you see that there's financial benefit there. And then of course, the psychological benefits for people who are involved in this space. This is one thing that they key in very well on.

So they always talk about how, you know, when you're talking about somebody's skin being replenished or somebody's whatever being replenished, you're, you're tapping into all those things about Wellness, about beauty, about, you know, all the emotional, the Metchetram, etcetera. So all the emotional everything. So yeah, you can also create content around psychological benefits as well. So that is one concrete example,

continuing from yesterday's example, about how you can put out content that addresses the physical benefits of what it is that you do, your physical benefits of your product, your service, the financial benefits, the psychological benefits. And that is the kind of content you should be creating. And this is where it ties to yesterday's episode. That is why I was proposing in yesterday's episode that look to increase your sales, we should be paying more attention to educational content and not so much on the entertaining content.

If you can do infotainment, that's good. If you have the talent. I don't have the talent to do infotaining content, so I can't talk to you guys about that. But I can talk to you guys about educational content. And I think this is the reason why we should do educational content because it allows you to hit these benefits. What's the physical benefit, What's financial benefit? What's the psychological benefit? And you can see how if you listen to yesterday's episode,

you know, when I was talking to the Abuja business ladies, particularly those of them in the business space, you can see how going on Tiktok and on Instagram and producing pointing videos or producing twerking videos or grinding videos or whatever videos, you know, just doesn't help. Because if you do the twerking thing or the pointing challenges or the OR whatnot, young men like me will watch them because we're getting some kind of benefits, you know, watching pretty ladies grind all day.

So yes, we are getting some kind of benefits. But The thing is the mummies between the ages of X&Y who have children that are between three months and 12 years and who need the whatever, they are not going to get anything out of your pointing video. Well, except if you make the pointing video. OK, Yeah. Now that would be an example of infotainment where the music is playing and then you're pointing. And then the caption might be three ways to improve the to improve three ways to cure your nipple rash, for instance.

That's for all those of you who are mummies who are breastfeeding. So that might be the caption on the video, Three ways to cure your nipple rash. You point up, that's the caption. Then you point to the left and you flash the first benefit, you point to the right, flash the second benefit, pointed whatever the third benefit, and then you pointed the bottom of the screen and then it says clicking the link below to find out more or click the link below to purchase or something.

So now that is infotaining content. So yes, if you can find a way to do that, then sure, no problem. So that's the reason why I say educational content because it'll allow you to speak in terms of these benefits. And really, no matter the business that you're involved in, even for those of us who started off in the wedding and the event space, we're pretty much doing the same thing. Physical benefits, wedding photography, I cannot think of that right now, except if, you know, having the frames up in your house and making your living room look real nice and look real beautiful.

I guess that's a physical benefit. I'm not sure. But the whole bunch of us in the wedding space back then, photographers who started off, we pretty much were leaning strongly between financial benefits and psychological benefits. So financial benefits, some people saying, you know, you don't have to spend hundreds of thousands seeing this photographer, seeing that photographer, you know, go with me because I'm more value for money, you know, wed no wedding photographer was saying I'm cheaper than so on.

So yeah, they say I'm more value for money. So yeah, go with me because I'm more value for money. That's financial benefit. And then there's a whole psychological benefits. You know, you're talking to Brad up about how ideas about the kind of portraits that you can come up with, how you're going to help them slay. OK, well, I'm not sure what the current slang is, but back then, you know, we used to have slay Queens. You know, people wanted to slay and people wanted to.

What's it called? Did it break the Internet? I can't remember. It's an old slang anyway, So, yeah. So back then, people wanted to slay and people wanted to break the Internet. I'm not sure what it's called today. So those would have been the terms which would have been talking about how we are value for money and about how we're going to create those kind of wedding images that would help you trend and help you sleep and help you everything.

So yeah, we're all speaking in those terms. So summary, 20 minutes. Let me bring this thing to a close to grow your business, create valuable content. The whole point of the content is that people see it, people like it, they find it engaging, they share to other people. And then people who have the problem, we'll now reach out to you. You guys start having conversations, you end up doing business, I'm sorry, doing business together.

But that only works if you're putting out things, if you're putting out content that is of value. And yes, value should be what is good or what is best, but what is best is not about you. It's about what the market thinks is valuable. So we should be doing a research and keeping an eye out to try and eyes and ears out to try and figure out what does the market think is the physical benefit of my product or my service, the financial benefit of my product or my service, the psychological benefit of my product or my service.

And then we should find ways to make sure that our content talks exclusively in those terms, which is why I say, please do educational content, don't do entertaining content, except if you can find a way to do infotainment, which is both. So if you can find a way to to work on Tiktok and still educate people at the same time, let me know. I give up my contact details all the time. So send it to me. Let me see how you can make that work because I don't think that can work.

Yeah. So that's you pretty much. Then reach out to me. Connect with me on WhatsApp. My phone number is 08064662140. The country code is +234. And then please connect with me on LinkedIn. My name is Tavishima Ayede. I'm the host of the show. I love hearing from you guys. You can confirm the spelling of my name if you're trying to search for me on LinkedIn from the link. We're currently listening to this episode. My e-mail address is there for those of you who are e-mail people.

But yeah, you reach out to me on LinkedIn, you definitely will hear from me in 24 hours. You reach out to me in WhatsApp, you definitely will hear from me in a couple of hours. You know, 48 hours, four to eight. Sorry, not 48 hours. So thank you very much for your time and attention. I'll catch you guys at the next episode.