From WhatsApp Discouragement to Sales Confidence: A Nigerian Playbook

Today on the podcast, we're going to be looking at sometimes what the reasons are while your sales activities, your sales, you know, whatever it is you're trying to do to grow sales, The reason why it's not working and one of the reasons why is because you are giving up too soon. Again, what we're going to be looking at today is sometimes the reason why your sales efforts, your marketing efforts are failing is because you are giving up too soon.

Now, I'm making today's recording out and about. I'm actually in the parking lot at an undisclosed location. I have one or two runs. As soon as I'm done with this, you know, I'll be on my way. I just let me make a quick recording. So there's going to be some noise in the background. You know, there's a Carpenter who is doing some renovation in the house somewhere. You know, people driving by, not too many people around gossiping, but you know, you're going to hear some noise in the background.

Now, if you're tired, how about podcasts? I keep talking about generic business advice, especially things that don't apply in Nigeria. Then you are in the right place because this is not one of those podcasts. Welcome to the podcast. I'm your host, Tavi Shima Ayedi, and for years I've been doing this, bringing you guys practical, realistic, relevant insights, especially things that will work in the Nigerian market. So if you're ready to fashion all those people who are talking generic stuff and you want to grow your business the Nigerian way, then stay locked into this podcast.

Stay tuned in. Subscribe on Spotify, YouTube, Apple or any player of your choice. And if you'd love to connect with me, you can call, send me a text message or a WhatsApp message on 08064662140. When you connect, ask me any question, any comments, any query, if you want to propose something, just make sure that the proposal makes sense. And yeah, no problem. Yeah, I like talking to anyone and everyone. So again, on the podcast,

sometimes the reason why your sales is failing is because you are giving up too soon. My brother, my sister, sometimes you're giving up too soon. Now, this is the context. Some of you who have been listening for a while, at least you've been listening for the last, like that kind maybe three months. You remember that podcast episode where I spoke about an old associate of mine who is in the podcasting space now, what she does is she runs a podcast production support outfit.

So they do, you know, they'll come up with your content calendar, they will help you record the podcast, They will edit the podcast, you know, they'll create marketing collateral for the podcast, you know, sound bites, you know, different things they came to produce, to produce and promote your podcast. So that's what it is that she, she does. So those of you who remember this just now, you remember that the reason why I was talking about her then was because she came up with this brilliant idea in my own mind.

I think it is a brilliant idea. She wanted to increase her sales and her marketing because, you know, let's face it, she has been posted on LinkedIn since, you know, forever. But like I've been telling you guys, a content marketing approach is not something that guarantees results today. If you say you want to grow your business on social media and you start posting today, you're not going to get sales. You will start in general and then see sales in February, on March.

That's not how it works, especially if you're taking a content marketing approach, which is what she was doing where you use long form content, you know, videos, blog posts, you know, things like that. Educate people on the value that you provide, you know, things like that. It's a medium for a long term approach. So we're talking several months or we're talking, you know, a year, two or three. So of course now she say, look,

this LinkedIn thing, we can continue it, but no BM, I need something that I will do now and you know, 2-3 weeks, I'll start to see some more sales. So she started being more proactive and that is why I made that podcast episode then to clap for her and to clap for all of you who are saying, you know what, let me do something much more how I put it, something I have much more control over and that I can't determine the results myself.

So what she said she was going to do was she was going to do WhatsApp outreach and she wanted to send 100 messages in two weeks and then see how many customers that she can get. And so I clap for her and I clap for those of you who are thinking about doing things like this because the thing about content marketing, LinkedIn, and then all that is you're posting and you're hoping that people will like you. They will find you interesting,

then they will follow. And then you show up on that timeline once in a while. Then, you know, maybe, maybe they will now send you a message. You know, how far are you free, how much you charge on these sorts of things? You know, it can't be a long thing. Now I'm not saying stop, continue with your LinkedIn posting, continue with your Instagram posting, continue with your TikTok posting, continue with your whatever posting.

But just know that growing by social media, all right, or growing by using a content marketing approach, it's a different time frame. But then when you try some of these much more traditional prospecting ideas, which is I will call somebody, I will go to people's office, I will go to a business exhibition, you know, these kinds of things. Those ones usually have much more direct control over how quickly revenue is going to come.

So generally speaking, the more people that you talk to in certain kinds of contexts, the more kind of business you hope to generate. Excuse me. So back to my friend now. She said two weeks, 100 messages and I clap for her. I said, we're don't, we're don't, we're don't my sister. You're on the right path. And so this is what happened. Now the outcome after she sent 100 messages get how many customers she got, she got 2.

When I saw that thing on LinkedIn also at one moment, OK, a call is coming in. I'll just I'll call that person back because you know, I don't my apologize for calling from my phone. So where was I? So when I saw that thing, I just realized that my sister, she will become discouraged because sales is hard and when people try this thing for the first time and the results are not sweet because let's face it, the level of rejection is high.

Most people, what happens that you know, rejection, you know, fear and all that you'll just become mellow. I didn't want my sister to mellow so sharply. I picked up the phone and I called her. Her name is in Cam. So in Cam, how far now? She said I'm doing good. I said, I saw that post that you, you put on LinkedIn. She said my brother, I said, I understand, I understand. So I started trying to talk to her. I need to encourage her so that she won't lose hope because actually she's on the right path.

And those of you who are trying these kinds of activities, it doesn't sound like it, but truly, truly, truly trust me, you are on the right path and that's why I tried to tell her. So I told her, look, my sister, I understand that it's hard, but to be honest then the results that you got actually is pretty typical she said. I said yes. When you're doing this kind of direct outreach, especially text based, we usually expect conversions to be around 0 to 3%.

I repeat, when you're doing this kind of thing, blasting people e-mail, blasting people messages, average conversion is 0 to 3%. That means you might get 0 customer or three people might decide to give you money. So I told her that my sister actually you are within, you are within the normal range. She said. I say yes, so she's OK. What's the way forward as it is the way forward since conversion rates of 0 to 3% are typical when you engage in this kind of thing, what you now do is you work on improving your conversions.

And when it comes to improving conversions, many things they involved by the conversions just means you're getting people to take the next step. Some people will see your post or see your message. You want some people to read. Some people will read. You want some people to reply. Some people will reply. You want some people to engage in conversations. Some people will converse. You want some people to receive proposal, some people will receive proposal, some other people will not ask you where where's your account number?

See that's that is a conversion. That's how it works. You meet somebody here, they take the next step and then the next step and then the next step and then the next step. So that is how business deals are one, one step at a time. All right, forget this thing that they show movies where somebody will show up, speak some nice grammar and then somebody will just transfer 5M on the spot. That's fame. That's not real life.

So in real life, deals are closed one step at a time. So I told her, right now you just need to work on your conversions. That's that's that's what you need to do. I'm working on the conversion, man. It can be any number of things. Your copy could have a problem. Copy just means the words, the texts, the phrases, the ideas that you were expressing in the message. Copy can be is very, very important. Why using the right kind of copy?

Why using the right words? Targeting is also an issue. Why you even targeting the right people? Because I keep saying on the podcast and I'm repeating today, there's no amount of talking to the wrong kind of customer that would give you a good business deal. No, it's like marriage. There's no amount of you toasting the wrong babe that would give you a fruitful marriage. Just don't happen. You want a fruitful marriage, be toasting the right kind of babe from the beginning.

Also the same thing. You know woman, there's no amount of toasting irresponsible man that would give you a responsible husband at the end of the day, forget it. You want a responsible husband, a husband begin to remove yourself from some situations. If you are hanging around with laggards and losers and lousy people, there is no amount of hanging around those people that will produce a good husband for you. Is the same thing in business.

You want good customers, want good clients. Make sure your targeting is on point from day one. So these WhatsApp messages are sure sending us. Now look, there are things you can look at to where are you sending to the right people, people who might be interested in broadcasting, people who are looking forward to starting a podcast, people who are interested in long form. So excuse me, I have a code. People are interested in long form content, content marketing strategy as a way to grow their business.

So we need to worry. The targeting, was it correct? When you look at the copy, the copy, the words, the phrasing, the ideas that you are using, was it correct? Then qualification and discovery. That is where you engage people in conversation to try and figure out who they are, what they're about, what the problem is, and then figure out how you can help them. While you having the right kinds of conversations with the people who responded to your messages,

their next is securing advancements while you securing next steps, next appointments. You know, because remember, that's how we close business deals, Taking things forward, one step forward, one step at a time. So what you was doing and what you are doing, if you're doing nothing is correct. You're on point, you're on the right path. We just need to now figure out have you been doing it the right way? Have you been targeting the right people?

Have you been using the right words, the right phrases, the right expressions? Have you been having the right kinds of conversations, asking them the right kinds of questions? And have you been skillfully moving them from 1:00 step to another step to another step, from phone call to Zoom meeting, from Zoom meeting to in office meeting, from in office meeting to discussing proposal, from discussing proposal to collecting deposit.

These are the things you need to look at so that you can move your conversion rate from zero to 3% to maybe 5% or 7%. Now it looks like it's small, but The thing is, remember even a 1% conversion rate, especially for those who was in the SME space means something because our profit margins are high or higher. So remember when I was a wedding photographer, sometimes you tell wedding photographers that if you talk to four people, so if you talk to 10 people and you get 4 customers and on each person your profit margin is 2200K.

So you're making 800 KA month. If you increase your conversion just by 1, you gain one more customer. It looks like it's a small thing because you went from 4:00 to 5:00. But that extra one person AT200K margin means you are now earning 1,000,000 every single month. So don't worry that your conversion rate goes from 3% to 4%. Yeah, on paper it looks more in your account. Believe me, you will see the difference in your account.

So these are the things to work on. So ultimately, I told my sister, I say in Cam, and I'm telling all of you to those of you who are in Cam situation, I say in Cam, don't give up. You are on the right path. You didn't do too badly. If you're listening to me right now, you sent 100 WhatsApp messages. You got three business deals from it. I know it looks small, but trust me, you're on the right path. The goal is we want to see how we can increase our conversion so that next time, if we send 100, we'll do several.

After a while, if we send 100, we'll do 10 deals. After a while, we'll send 100, we'll get 12 clients. We'll be increasing over time like that, like that, like that. And please, let's have the right perspective. If it was not easy, don't you think everybody will be doing it and everybody will be a billionaire by now? If you could send 100 text messages and then 100 people will reply and all of them will give you money, you don't think we'll all be billionaires by now?

So have the right hand, right? Have the right perspective. So if you're if you're like my sister in Cam, you're on the right path. Relax, don't give up too soon. Another reason why I told her she was on the right path is this. When you're trying to reach out to strangers like this, going to strangers offices, sending strangers messages, going into setting or meeting perfect strangers, you are gaining transferable skills and you're gaining knowledge that transfers into other aspects of your life,

whether it's career, whether it's dating, whether it's all kinds of things and confidence for other areas of business, other areas of life. Take me now for instance, see what I'm doing. If tomorrow I say, you know what, I'm tired of this sales, I'm leaving. I want to set up my church so I can be collecting tithes. Imagine the kind of pastor I'll be. I'll be on fire for the Lord and it will reflect in my bank account. I'll be collecting good money because of the things I have learned while I was trying to do sales.

And when I decide to run for president will be the same thing. OK, well, you know, I will need Ghana was good. You know, you know how they play politics in this country now. I need plenty of money. But when it comes to building coalition, you know, handling debates, you know, things like that, I will be I'll be on point. I won't do too bad. I won't be too shabby because of things that I've learned now. So don't give up.

You're on the right path. Even if nothing nothing, you're picking up some nice skills that will help in other areas of life. So that's what I told my sister again, I thought my sister heard me and I was like, OK, she won't give up. I told her, if you need anything, John, holla me. No Allah to say I don't want to take advantage of you. How much does it cost for coaching? I told her, but I told her, look, you know what?

You are me like, you know, like I'm broadcasting, you're podcasting, you know, as far as I'm concerned, you're my sister. I cannot see that you're not making progress and I won't be happy that anything. Just just call me, call me, we'll talk. She said no problem. So what happened next? I saw one long glinting. Oh, sorry, is the judge is driving his his truck past me. Sorry, sorry about that. So that's the problem of making a podcast live and in the field,

you know, all these kinds of interruptions happen. So next thing I saw another LinkedIn post, my sister in Cam, she wrote she was not happy with the experiment. She's moving on something something. These are the things that she has learned. And then my heart broke. I said, hey, another one bites the dust. Another one was on the right path. But then she has stocks. And that's why I'm making today's podcast episode. Don't be like my sister in Cam.

I'm begging you people, the problem with most business owners in the SME spaces in Nigeria is that you don't stay long enough for a plan to work before you give up. Please, if you're somebody that is trying WhatsApp message, you only did it for two weeks, what do you expect? That you do it for two weeks, you send 100 messages and then 98 people reply and then 90 people will transfer money to you. It's not like that. Let's have the right expectations so people are not staying long enough for the plan to even work.

I explained this thing to her. So let me explain it to you in case there's another Sister in Cam listening on this line. So please, people like Sister in Cam. If you have tried this thing once and you got some results, what we have established now in sales, we call it baseline. Baseline just means what is my normal performance? That's just your baseline. Now that we know the baseline, we continue to try again and try and work on conversion.

So our baseline is 3%. I'd be OK next time. Let's see if we can do 4%. Let's see if we can do 6. Let's see if we can do 10, Let's see if we can do 12. And they continue to grow. By the way, nobody does 90%. Just know it now. There's no business in the world where anybody does 90% conversions. It does not happen. There's some people who say they do 90% conversions. When you meet them, reach out to me. I'll explain to you the magic that is behind it.

It's not really OK if I let me even tell you here, there are some salespeople that say they do 90% conversions. This is what they do actually. First of all, they have a junior salesperson answer the phone and qualify the person. Qualification and discovery means you're having conversations with somebody. You're trying to figure out is this a serious person or they walk up us. It is only after they have those conversations that they now pass it up to their boss and then their boss will now close.

OK, now if your junior salesperson does the job right and it's only handing over people to you who want and are interested in your product or service, who have a need and who can afford you. So excuse me if that is what is happening now, somebody else is qualifying before they hand it to you. I am telling you very, very. I say unto you, you'll be a bastard if you can't close 90% of them, you are needy or if you can't close 90% of them.

So people who say they close 90%, forget them. It's a lie. Somebody else is doing qualification of first before handing over to them. So nobody closes at 90%. Nobody. There are people who have built immense wealth and businesses off of lesser odds. Like people point out that this guy was his name, although he's not closing, this one is now investing. Warren Buffett. I think they say Warren Buffett. I mean, he's only 36% or 46% of his deals have been good ones.

Imagine that, I can't remember if it's 36% or 46%. So let's say 46%, in other words, 50 something percent of the deals that he has done. They lose money, but then the ones that clicked, they click. Well, that's the whole point of business. You win some, you lose some. Or the one that we win, we want to win well. So if you're like my sister and Kim, the first time you did it, that was your conversion. Yeah, your baseline.

Now we're trying to grow our baseline, increase our conversions. So try the first time and get your baseline. Try the second time. OK, one or two times. That's your baseline. Try again. Now we start working on conversions. Then we try again. Then we'll be getting some feedback in the sales process because we're talking to people who realize that this is working. That is not working. No problem. Iterate on the feedback and then do what?

Try again. Two weeks of sending messages is not enough to say that sending WhatsApp messages does not work. Two weeks is not enough. You need to try several times before you say this thing doesn't work. Reminds you of when I was in primary school. There was this guy who like one baby in primary school. Yes, some of you will be saying primary school. Yeah, because my wife said the same thing to my. I said in primary school people already looking at girls.

And I was like, well, yeah, like, yeah, you play football, and then, you know, you submit your homework. And then after that, what else do you do? You look at girls. That's what boys do. So in primary school now, one of my guys was looking at this girl. He liked her, and he tried toasting her. And, you know, she didn't like him. She like somebody else. And then he just said all girls are chicken brain. That's the way he said all girls are.

Sorry, fish brain. That's why he said all girls are fish brain. That's what he said and that was it. That's how my guy's perception was colored. From that point on. He said all girls have huge brain. Like relax, you don't know 2 swan babe and then you now give up. All girls have fish brain. It's not like that. Now you try again and then again and then again. You change your targeting. Am I speaking to the right kind of babes qualification and discovery?

Am I having the right kind of conversations with them? Are we having enticing conversations? I'm able to get them to take the next step. By the way, when you're in primary school or secondary school, the next step actually should be hanging out on a nice, you know when I watch him, you know, go to the movie, go and eat popcorn, you know, that kind of thing. No, don't try and run too far. The forbidden food stages later on is, you know, when you're older, don't try and run too fast.

So it's like that, the same as relationships. Also, in business, two weeks of sending messages is not enough to say sending messages doesn't work. If you're like my friend, a girl broke your heart. Toasting one baby is not enough to say that girls have fish brain. No, doesn't work like that, doesn't work like that. So there's also another friend of mine, a photographer in Lagos. So was about a decade ago. He ran one advertising complaint campaign on Facebook.

Listen again, the guy ran one advertising campaign on Facebook. He didn't get any results. His conclusion was that Facebook advertising doesn't work. Like I didn't tell him this actually, but the real problem was, is not our Facebook advertising doesn't work. The real problem was that my guy was not doing it right. He advertised and he was sending views to a post on Facebook, but the post was not optimized for a CTAA call to action.

A call to action is where you try and get somebody to take the next step. So he was getting engagements and likes, but he was not getting sales. The problem was the post he was sending people to was not the kind of post that will entice somebody to sell. If you advertise on Facebook and you send it to a picture and happens to be your prettiest picture, excuse me? What will happen is that people will like and like and like and like and like because you're not asking them to do anything else.

What if you send them to a pretty picture and then there's a beautiful post about how you know the wedding was sweet, you like working with the couple, these are the kind of things they provide, blah, blah blah. If you want your, if you want magical images like this on your wedding day, slide into the DM. There's a CTA, then there's a call to action. Some people might slide into your DM. The problem was my friend did not set up the Facebook advertising campaign right.

Don't run one advertising campaign and then say Facebook advertising doesn't work, it's too soon, it's not like that. Try again. Learn, study, optimize your campaign. Guess your feedback. Take a couple of things. My friend did not stay long enough to optimize the process and he didn't stay long enough to make the thing work. Another example I run, I meet lots of Nigerian business owners who go and print 500 Flyers. You distribute 100, then you give up.

You say Flyers don't doesn't work. I say why did you put it? You say I put 100 of them in Mr. Biggs. In my mind, I'm thinking, does that sound smart? You printed 500 Flyers, You took all, you took 100 and put them in one location only and they say flyer doesn't work. I mean come on, sending Flyers is a volume game. Print a batch of 1000 at least distribute them. The word is distribute. Put some in Mr. Biggs, put some in anti in Joby.

Put some in Yao your put some in Access Bank. Spread it, spread it around. Send 101st and then see how many people called. Apart from the volume, that's the number of things that you sent out. The problem could also be in the copy. It was your design suite. The words that you used on the flyer wasn't on point. Some of you have not tried this thing long enough to say whether this thing works or not. If you printed 500 Flyers, you only dropped 100.

You haven't done enough to say that this thing does not work. And we can keep on going on with example after example after example. So please don't be like my aunt, my sister and Kim or my friend. What makes you think even worse is some people will now they would try everything. They will try networking face to face. One month networking doesn't work then months to they will now try Flyers only 500 copies. When I say Flyers doesn't work then they will try Facebook advertisement for month 3 and then they will say Facebook advertisement doesn't work.

Then they'll try sending WhatsApp messages in month four and then they'll say WhatsApp message doesn't work. Then they'll try call code e-mail campaigns in in in month 5 and they say code emails doesn't work. Then they'll spend month 6 July. Those kind of depressed their month 7 they say car a business is hard. Month 8 they will now start calling up their former boss to see if they can go back to work. That business is hard.

Yes, business is hard, but he didn't try any one thing long enough to give it a chance that the thing will succeed. Engaging this kind of behavior is the easiest way to to fall into discouragement and despair. Anyway, 30 minutes. So let me just wrap up. Look, what I'm just trying to say is this. Most things work, you hear me? Most things work if you do them the right way and if you're doing it in the right context. But you have to give yourself time to figure out those things.

You have to give yourself time to figure out those things. It was as easy as the first time. Everybody does it. It works. We would all be Baroness. I wouldn't be making this podcast. I'll be sitting down in my house on a cold AC, watching DSTV, having Shama for breakfast, and then planning my next visit to Turks and Caicos. So it's not like that. Most things work if you do them the right way and in the right context where you have to give yourself time to figure out these things.

Facebook advertising, it works. Networking, it also works. Cold calling, it also works. WhatsApp outreach, it also works. e-mail marketing, it also works. Whatever it is you want to call it, it also works if you're doing it the right way. What? You have to give yourself time to try and figure out if you're doing it the right way. Am I doing the right thing? Yes, most things are the right thing, depending on the context.

So am I doing the right thing? Am I getting the results that I like? No. OK, what can I tweak? What can I optimize? Let me do it a couple of times before we can give up. So please don't be like my sister and Kim. Please don't. Whatever you're doing, I'm not saying all of you should go and say what's up messages. I'm not saying that. Trust me. Whatever it is you're doing, don't stop after two weeks. Don't stop after one campaign.

Some of you, the reason why your sales is not moving is because you gave up too soon. And yes, in Cam, if you're listening to this episode, yeah, it's you. It's it's you I'm talking about. I was hoping that one day you stumble upon this podcast and you know you will hear it. We already had the conversation, but still, I want you to hear it again so that next time you won't give up. So that's it. And that's all folks remember.

If you'd love to connect, you can call, send me a text message or WhatsApp message on 08064662140. And if you're ready for more strategies like this, more tips, more perspectives like this, then you're in luck. Because in this very feed, we have over 1200 episodes here, Practical insights. So Scroll down, keep listening to the old episodes, listen with a pen and a paper, write down ideas that seem to make sense with you.

And then write it down to try it out. And please, when you try stuff out, don't try it once. I say, this thing doesn't work, Don't try it for two weeks. I say this thing doesn't work. Give yourself time, take feedback in the process, iterate, keep making much more improvements, keep optimizing. Eventually you start seeing the results coming in. But for those of you who say you want to try broadcast messages on WhatsApp or e-mail, just remember the realistic conversion rate is 0 to 3%.

So if you send 100 messages, you've got 3 customers. Actually, you're not doing too bad. It's not the best at all. Three out of 100 is not the best, but just know that that's the global average. So continue to improve and yeah, you'll be good. So that's it, that's all. I'll catch you guys soon.