DM Fails: Stop Spooking Your Audience & Start Real Conversations

Hello and welcome to the show. I know we're supposed to be on the challenges of selling your fintech idea in Nigeria, but I received another message today, you know, one of those kinds of messages that I usually receive. And I figured, let me just hop on the mic real quick and use this as a case study because I know that there are a bunch of you who are listening to this show right now who still try to sell this way. So this is an SOS just trying to let you guys know, OK, no, not SOSSOS is save our souls.

So this is an SYS or SYB. So this is me trying to save your soul or to save your business. And you guys really should stop doing these things. And you know, there are better ways to sell. You don't even have to book time with me or use any sales guru in quote for that matter. A simple Google search or a simple YouTube search or a simple Gemini search or ChatGPT search should be able to give you a better script than you can use than what's currently out there.

You know what people are advising you guys to do anyway. So let me just jump straight into it. By the way, it's not bad. So for those of you who are sending out these kinds of messages, I'm not saying this is bad and this is going to hurt your business. I'm just trying to say that there are much more effective ways to sell that you ought to consider. So I was chilling, minding my business on Instagram. Well, actually I was promoting one of the speaking engagements I have, which is for the 1st of May, the 1st of May in Nigeria is Mayday.

Well, I think that's an international I, I think it should be an international thing. Anyway, we call it Mayday over here. I think it's on parts of the world. We call it Workers Day. So it's going to be a public holiday and a bunch of photographers have got me to come speak at an event. And this means a lot to me actually, because when I started off this podcast, I started it off hoping to talk to people in the photography community and in the event and wedding space because that was my main constituency.

That was where I started from and that was where I cut my teeth when it comes to selling, really. Then after that, the family export business were actually both of them running concurrently. But at the time it looked like that community was not interested in what it is that I had to say because wedding photographers particularly are in love with the newest cameras, the newest computers, the newest gear, you know, those sorts of things.

So it was a marriage that wasn't working. And so I decided to switch the focus of the show and start talking to wider Nigerian business community because that was the only feedback I was getting anyway. You know, people would hit me up. An architect here. OK, There was this dude that was into, well, still is into carpentry. It's just that we don't talk much these days. So was folks like that. People hit me up from different industries.

And I figured, yeah, I started off this thing trying to talk to people in the photography community, event planners, you know, those sorts of things. Cake artists, well, they ain't listening. So I just went to where the ovation was loudest. And that is how the show changed what it is today. So it is a very fulfilling and kind of emotional thing for me to receive this invitation to come and speak to people in my home constituency about how they can simplify their businesses and make things better.

So I'll assume that there's a growing trend that people in the arts, because those of us who come from that background, we consider ourselves artists. And maybe that's the disdain. That's the reason why people in this space have a disdain for sales, because you figure I'm an artist, let me do my art. People will see it, people will like it, people will come. But unfortunately, it's not that simple. So I was on Instagram to promote that when somebody hit me up in the DMS and the message went something like this.

Greetings, I love your page and I love what you do. Oh, by the way, this is me summarizing because the message was longer than this. And of course, you guys know that I've been staying in here on the show at nauseam. Keep the messages short. I scrolled through because I'm interested in sales and business development, so whenever I get any form of outreach, I read the whole thing. Partly out of sympathy, but then partly out of the fact that I'm trying to do some research to see what kinds of what the latest trend in SMS marketing,

DMS, social selling, blah blah blah. I'd like to know what the latest flare is. And unfortunately, The thing is, something starts because maybe some guru said something, and all of you just copy. So the messages all sound alike. So yeah. So if you do this sort of thing, you know, keep the message short. So this is me summarizing the message meant something like this. Greetings. I love your page and what you do. I think you need more followers.

This will help you boost your credibility. I can help you with followers at a more affordable rate. Are you interested? Let's talk business. So this is me summarizing the message. This person expresses thing in several paragraphs, but you can see how I summarize this thing into four sentences. So what this person sent us five or six blocks of texts really should have just been 4 short sentences. You know what's up? I love your page on what you do.

I think you need more followers to help you boost credibility. I can help with followers at an affordable rate. Are you interested? Let's talk business. You see, short. You can keep it short and simple. It doesn't have to be a wall of text. I read it because it's me. Most people you're sending these messages to do not read. What they do is they select highlight and then they block. Some people who have some sort of privacy settings on might even be able to just move you to spam or block or what's that word there's on Instagram.

There's something that you do where if you highlight that thing, your profile won't be visible to that person anymore. So I guess it's a kind of option than blocking or spamming the person, but the option is still there nonetheless. So this was the message. Now, the message has a bunch of problems. If you've been listening to the show, I'm sure you can't figure them out already. So like I said, it was too long. I summarized it into four or five sentences.

The guy should have kept it shorter. Another problem, this message has too many assumptions. The guy's assuming too many things. One, yes, I did confirm it's a guy. Then what else #3 the message should be staggered. You guys are trying to do social media, selling SMS outreach, stuff like that, and cramming too many things into one message. So let's tackle these things one at a time. How you can reduce the number of assumptions that you have here,

how you can actually build a conversation, and how you can stagger your outreach. So number one, he made the assumption that ticks me off the most. He assumed that I need more followers. Everybody that hits me up trying to sell social media services and blah, blah, blah assumes that I need more followers. It's not just me. Any other business person, whether you sell pajamas or whether you sell crayfish or whatever it is, everybody hits you up assuming that you need more followers.

But The thing is this, for those of you who are selling social media management services and all these kinds of stuff, not everybody is looking for more followers. You need to find out what the person wants and then try to sell to what the person is interested in or else you are not going to get any interest from the gate. There are some people who are doing this whole Instagram thing because for them it is purely a brand play, brand positioning,

not necessarily followers. Some of you might say what's the difference? There's a small distinction, but we can get into that later. Then there are some people who are doing this from a lead generation play. So it's not exactly just followers, but they want to get leads. It's not just followers they're looking at. There are some people who are on Instagram just because they want to use it for relationship building with other influencers.

In fact, for now, I think that's the chief benefit that I have from having from maintaining the Instagram accounts because I let it die. But I kind of picked it back up because now that I'm speaking in some circles, not everybody's linked. I spend most of my time on LinkedIn, but everybody's a LinkedIn person. So just like the way that I'm using my LinkedIn to keep some relationships alive and keep me top of mind, it is now finally nice to have the Instagram handle to keep those relationships alive and keep me top of mind as well.

For instance, there's this lady, what's her name? I'm trying to remember the Instagram name and I can't remember anyway, but I happen to share a stage with her. Ida Hosa. Reb Reb Ida Hosa. Yeah. So I shared the stage with Reb Ida Hosa. She is not a LinkedIn person. She is a So I should yeah, she's not a LinkedIn person. She's an Instagram person. And you send her a message anywhere else, she might not reply. If you send her a message on Instagram.

Now if you send it to her at one O 3, she'll reply at one O 5. So she lives on Instagram. So for me now, one of the chief advantages that I have for my Instagram handles that is helping me maintain relationships and visibility with those sorts of people who don't run in my kind of circles online. So that's another thing that people can be looking for. We have looked at followers, brand lead generation, relationship building.

Some people use Instagram purely as a portfolio because back in my wedding photography days, that was all my Instagram account was. It was a portfolio. I did nothing else with this. I put pictures up, I didn't promote them. The whole point was first having a conversation with the bride. I wanted to send her a link to say this is My Portfolio. This is what I've done. And then since I'm a podcaster, I'm using the Instagram to try and promote the podcast.

So you can see that depending on who you're talking to, there are lots of reasons why somebody might be trying to maintain an Instagram account. It is not always followers. You need to have the conversation with the person. Even if you think that followers are the solution. It is only when you understand where that person is coming from and when the person feels heard, seen and understood that you cannot bring it back to that follower thing.

So if somebody says, look, followers is not my cup of tea, I want leads, I want leads, I want leads. If in your professional opinion you believe that getting more followers is the best way to get more leads, it is only when you see, understand and listen to that person like oh OK I get it you're on Instagram for the leads that you can now bring it back and say look bro the way to get more leads is to get more followers.

I hope you guys get where I'm coming from. But bottom line is stop starting the conversation assuming that the person already needs what it is that you have. So don't be walking up to total strangers trying to sell your registration for crypto exchange if you are not even sure that the person is interested in crypto in the 1st place. I hope you guys get where I'm going. So whether it's crypto or wedding photography. In fact, as a wedding photographer, I wouldn't just assume that any lady that I see that doesn't have a wedding ring is looking for a wedding photographer.

It's not like that. I needed to look for other kinds of cues that would give me a sense of, OK, this is a potential bride or not before I start trying to have the conversation. So you guys need to be doing the same sort of thing online whether you sell social media management or not. So that's the first problem. Do it assumed I need followers. And thing is, I can't really be bothered. In fact, for me, I think I track my reach on Instagram more than the followers because I've noticed that it's like the more reach I get on Instagram, it's like the more followers I seem to be having on the podcast.

Now I'm not tech savvy enough to to test if there's a correlation, but it's kind of a coincidence that when I started gaining more reach on Instagram, the subscription to my podcast started going up and up and up. So I can't really be bothered that I only have 1200 followers if it looks like the more my reach grows, those are people who actually see the post. The more my reach grows, the more subscribers I get. And in fact, my call to action actually, when I'm proposed promoting my stuff on Instagram,

actually is to get people to listen to the show and to subscribe to the show. So that is the first mistake he made. He assumed that I needed followers. Have a conversation with me, have a conversation with whoever and figure out what it is that the person needs before you now know what it is that you are going to sell. So stop assuming. How do you stop assuming you do that? By actually engaging in the conversation to figure out what this person deeds.

When you know what the person needs, then you deliver the sales speech. Like I said, my own needs, trying to promote the podcast. I'm trying to leverage social media for paid speaking engagements like the last one that I did, which was the Nigerian Bottling Corporation. That's the Coca-Cola people. The youth engagement, sorry, not engagement. The Youth Empowered seminar. Yeah, because I was able to get that because I leveraged social media connects back from my wedding photography days because I ignored Instagram.

But I'm now using Instagram Deli deliberately to see how I can transition my wedding photography history. I mean, out of that era. Let me just put it like, OK, no, that was not very articulate, but you get my gist on Instagram. I still, for a while, I still had that thing as the wedding photography guy, but I've not been the wedding photography guy for a while. So instead of ignoring the profile, I'm using the profiles and trying to transition the reputation away from photography into something else.

And the NBC Youth Empowered Speaking Engagement was an example of that. So now, if you're going to engage in conversation with people, you need to stagger your conversation flow. When I say stagger, what I mean is break it up, chunk it up. Most people are sending putting too many things in one message. It's a whole block of message, a whole block of messages. The reason why that is ineffective is because you put too many things in there.

And then which thing exactly is the prospect supposed to reply to if you put too many things? 5-6 things. Like remember what this guy said? I broke it down into five statements, I think. OK. Yeah. So those greeting part. Love your page and what you do. I think you might need more followers to help boost your credibility. I can do that. An affordable rate. Are you interested? Let's talk business. There's a bunch to respond to.

You put some flattery there about loving the page. You know, he could respond to that. There's the credibility thing. Let's see, what else? Followers. OK, you know what? Let me just slow it down. Let me take my own advice and show you guys how I think it should actually work. I think the first album that this guy sent sent should have been the greetings and then the flattery. Hey, what's up? I've seen your page. I love what you do, especially this post, this post, that post,

man, the thing really jibe with me like big up. I like what you do Well done, nice job. You know, flattery, whatever, pick your own words and then a bunch of people are going to respond. Oh, thank you very much. We're going to take that as permission now to assume that we can engage in a conversation. Then that's where you're going to start asking questions about. I notice that even though you've been doing this thing for the past four years, you only have 1200 followers.

Do you think it hurts your credibility in any way? Question mark, leave it there. A bunch of people will ignore. That's not a problem. We're not worried about the people who ignore. We're worried about the people who engage. And some people will say, Oh no, actually it works perfectly fine because I use Instagram for this, this that. You continue with the conversation, you might find out if there's a problem there or not.

A bunch of people might engage and say, yeah, actually, I think it's really costing me credibility to you. I think people don't take me seriously when they look at my Instagram handle. Now, can you see that you guys are in a conversation? You've exchanged like 5 or 6 messages. You're not that weird stranger who showed up and then put a block of text in the DM. You're not having a conversation with an actual person. And then you now get to that whole thing of how you can help with followers or another assumption at an affordable rate.

Social media managers, why do you assume that everybody's looking for affordable rates? Nobody has said anything about price already. You're trying to set yourself up at the lower end of the spectrum and then later on you come and say now that business is difficult. How would it be difficult when the key thing you're trying to do every single time you communicate is to set yourself apart using a pricing strategy? That's just stress.

I mean, sometimes it's necessary, like you're broke, you know, you need to buy fuel. I understand. We all get there. Like no more I need to buy fuel. Anything comes along, I'll take it or school fees is coming up. Anything that comes along, I'll take it because you know, last last as in 100K is better than 0. So I get it. But don't start off with that whole affordable rate thing. You don't know who you're talking to. What if I'm Dangote's daughter and money is not a problem?

You never know. Have the conversation first. Know who you're dealing with. Know what problem they have. Get a sense of how your product or service might solve that problem. Get a sense of the benefit that the person is going to get on the other end. Because after all, if you're able to work your magic and the person is concerned about lead generation and even though the person pays you 500 K, the person is going to be able to get 2.5 business at the end of it Then I mean, what are you talking lowest price for?

If the expense is worth it. So that is how you start at the conversation. You get into somebody's DM, it's just one short message question mark, the person respond, another short message question mark, the person responds. The whole goal is using this guy's playbook. Get in there, flatter them, they'll be pleased. Everybody loves flattery. Then start asking more questions. You're trying to figure out who are they? What do they do?

Do they have a problem that you can solve? So that's how you break it up. So first, like I said, greetings, I love your page. I love what you do, especially this post, that post you stop. Some people will say thanks when they say thanks, you say, oh, you've been doing this for so, so, so and so. I think you should have more followers by now, don't you think so? Or you only have 1000 followers. I think that is not that's not enough to boost your credibility.

What do you think? Well, I think you only have those also followers. Is that enough to help promote your business? Isn't that costing you business? I mean you just well different. So whichever way it is that you choose to express yourself, that's the flow of the conversation that you should be having. And then that whole thing of helping with more followers eventually have to get there. But don't start off the whole thing at an affordable rate.

Perhaps you should be looking at. The returns that you can get, I'm sure that if you do this as a business, you have case studies, you know, clients that you've worked with in the past, how you were able to grow their following from maybe 1001 thousand, 2 followers to maybe 5006. And then when they jump from 5006, instead of monthly income being 50K, their monthly income was now 250K or something. You can point to those sorts of things.

Well, it's hopefully you can point to those sorts of things. So those are some of the mistakes that this fellow made in his outreach and that I think you guys should stop doing. If you're doing it when you get into somebody's DM, stop with the five or six paragraphs. Keep it short. Most people are not paying attention. In this case, I could reduce his message to four or five sentences. Greetings, I love your page. I think you need more followers to boost credibility.

I can help with more followers at an affordable rate. Are you interested? Let's talk business. That'll be four or five lines and the message is passed across. Stop making too many assumptions. Figure out exactly what it is that they need. Don't try to sell people followers if what they're looking for is relationship building. Don't sell people lead generation if what they're looking for is brand building. Hope you guys get where I'm going to and don't sell people crypto exchange if what they are interested in is stock investing or real estate investing.

So engage in a conversation instead of sending one message and giving yourself a part on the back. Send one message today to maybe 20 people and then log out. Come back tomorrow. Of those 20 people, how many people responded? Engage with those that responded and then log out. Come back on Wednesday, engage some more and log out. Come back Thursday, repeat the process. You look for prospects This way, you stack out your artery, your outreach.

You're going to become much more efficient in managing conversations with people. And I've already gone 20 minutes over this rant, so let me just bring it to a close here. Connect with me on WhatsApp. The phone number is 08064662140. The country code is +234 for those of you who are not Nigerian. And please don't spam me if you do, you're going to end up as a subject of a future episode. Then also connect with me on WhatsApp.

Sorry, not WhatsApp, LinkedIn where I spend most of my time. My name is Tavishima Aidi, I'm the host of the show. You can confirm the spelling of my name from the link we're listening to this episode. My e-mail address is there for those of you folks who prefer e-mail. Thanks for your time and attention. I'll catch you guys at the next episode.