How to Have Better Conversations with Customers: The Power of Data Enrichment

Hello and welcome. My name is Tavishima Ayede. I'm the host of the podcast making today's recording in church because the kids are having cat kism classes, so I expect to hear some noise in the background. Now, the goal of this podcast is to solve business problems, especially problems that stem from sales and marketing. So if you have issues with marketing, issues with your side hustle, something is holding your business back, or something is holding your career back,

then this is the show for you. Subscribe on Spotify, YouTube, Apple, or any player of your choice. And if you'd love to connect, then call SMS or WhatsApp me on 08064662140. Today, I want us to look at data enrichment because I think I made a broadcast episode, I think last week as when I was talking about my current engagement with the solar company based in Lagos where I'm training the sales team. And I spoke about how I've been trying to tell them about data enrichment, data enrichment.

And I also mentioned that in previous engagements. And I think another person that I spoke to who sells, she's a salesperson and how Olga, the business that they're involved in, I think it's customer service solutions and things like that. You know, they claim that they found AI solutions and apps and you know, things like that to solve these sorts of problems. So I've been drumming this thing, data enrichment, data enrichment, data enrichment.

So I figured, let me just make a podcast episode where I talk about this thing in some more detail so that those of you who had the episode and I can't remember if I explained it or if I explained it well and you were wondering data enrichment, you know, what does that mean? Is there anything like data poverty? Then at least hopefully I should be able to shed some light on it, and then you'll be able to see how this can apply to your own business.

As you mind, you're also running around trying to grow some sales. So when we say data enrichment, this is what we mean. We mean that when you're trying to run your business, a lot of times you just have raw data rotate. That just means you have facts and figures, but nothing else is attached to it. I repeat, raw data just means you have facts and figures but nothing else is attached to it. In other words, for those of us who sell you call customers, you know, things like that.

You just have name and phone number. You don't have anything that's attached to it. You just see phone number 080, this dot dot dot and then the name is Abdul Abdul Salam Alumino. That is all that is raw data. You don't have anything again attached to it. Some of you will say, how is that a problem? It's because you don't sell. That's why you don't know it's a big problem because how in the hell am I supposed to call 080,

blah, blah, blah, Abdul Abdul Abdul Abdul Qatar Armamino, How am I supposed to call him and start up a conversation? I know nothing about this guy. That is what data. That's the problem with data enrichment solves. It just means from this raw data, how can we create a full profile? See, The thing is you can call somebody with minimal data 'cause last last, at the end of the day, if all you have is a phone number and one name or a nickname, well, you're the one that wants the business now, so you will call.

But if you can get a full profile, the better. If you check able to do data enrichment and you figure out that this is the name of somebody who is based in Kano, he's a 75 year old businessman who is involved in social so and so businesses. In your mind, I, you can now begin to say that, OK, when I call him, this is how I'll push the conversation. This how the conversation will flow. I'll be able to move it like this or move it like that.

So the more information that you have, the better. If the fuller the profile that you have, the better. So it is very, very hard to call 080 dot dot dot dot dot and say you want to sell. That is hard. If you have 080, that's phone number, you don't have the person's name, your job is a lot easier because at least now you have a name you know that you can call confidently and say good morning, Sir, or good morning, Ma.

At least that problem is solved. So the more information that you get, the fuller the profile, the better. So that is what data enrichment means. It means we have raw data. How are we going to make this thing rich? It's like soup, you know, if your soup is just basic, that's palm oil and water and salt, then you know that does not. And anyway, that's how you should live in Boarding Scotia. So you will still survive. But then if you make it rich, if there's one more in it, if there's a goose in it, for those of you who like fish, if there's crayfish in it, if there's Opoco in it, you know there's some vegetable in it.

And then you have maybe like 12 raps of pouffe on the side, you know, the richer the better. So it's the same thing with our data, at least for those of us who have to call people to sell something or call someone to book a meeting, to book an appointment to book a something. The more information, the more data it is that we have, the better. But of course, that doesn't mean you spend the whole day doing research. Because you know, this business,

if you spend 2 days reaching somebody before you call Guy, you're wasting your time spending two days to reset somebody before you call. That just means in the whole month you'll only call, I don't know, maybe like 10 people. And that's not the way forward. Well, businesses can be built on 10 people, 10 calls a month. But anyway, let me not get into that, into that part. So that's what data enrichment means. So we need to have more than just an e-mail, more than just a phone number, more than just a contact number that is raw data.

We need to be able to figure out some extra things so that we can know who is a time waster, who is a serious person, who is this person? So in your mind, you can begin to think of why this is how the conversation will go. This is how I'm going to be able to personalize the conversation. This is how I'm going to be able to move it like this. Move it like that before you start the phone call or before you send the e-mail or before you knock on the guy's door.

If you're going from office to office and you're entering somebody's office, all you just know is that the person's name is Al Haji Dalhatu. You know, it's nerve wracking. You know nothing, but you know it's Al Haji Dalhatu. But you know, he's a young Al Haji. You know he's only 38. He made his money in oil and gas. What else? Even if that's all you know, at least you know you're more comfortable knocking on the door or walking into the office.

You have a clearer picture. Small. So the sorry 1 moment. OK, sorry about that. You know, I mentioned that my kids were in catechism, so one of my boys needed my attention for something. OK, so I was going to tackle one question now. Whether we need massive budgets, whether we need plenty of money, whether we need plenty of software, whether we need plenty of tech to be able to do data enrichment. And my answer is no.

There are plenty of high tech things that you can use for data enrichment. If I, one of my clients uses Apollo dot IO, introduced me, introduced Abby, introduced me to it. So to be honest, before last year, I had no idea that Apollo dot IO existed. I know some of you will be shocked, like how can you don't know about Apollo? And The thing is, nobody can know everything now. So, but that's the benefit of, you know, this job, you know,

you're going around, you're talking to people, interacting with clients, interacting with other professionals. So you get to learn, you know, new things, things that are out in the field. So in my opinion, you don't need a massive budget. You don't need plenty of software, you don't need plenty of tech because there are some public resources that are already available. And you know, for instance, social media, social media is already available.

You don't need to spend money for that. That can be not a bad way to start for doing data enrichment at the very least. You might see this person's face, you might see the person's name, you might see the person's nickname, you might get to see the person's profession if you see a LinkedIn profile. So you never know. So in fact, what I tell lots of people is you're a salesperson. Your guy has not paid for Apollo dot IO or any of those fancy stuff.

At the very least, you have Google on your computer and on your phone. Use it. You have Truecaller, use it. So what I say is take the phone number, copy and paste it into Truecaller. Truecaller will give you a name. Take that name, paste it into Google. Google will give you social media, LinkedIn, you know, all kinds of things that people are involved in. And there you have it. You now have a clearer picture of who it is that you are trying to reach after, who you are trying to chase to become a customer, who you're trying to chase to buy your product or your service.

So you don't have money for the expensive stuff, for all the fancy stuff that people are talking about in America and the UK. No problem. For now. You have Google and you have Truecaller. Use it. I tell all the sales people that I train that until your guy buys all the fancy stuff, you should have a permanent tab on your on your desktop open Truecaller. It should be open permanent and Google open permanent before you call.

Do that. Now I've mentioned that yes, it is going to slow down your call times. Yes it will. Seriously. But at least you have more confidence in calling. And like the last person I recommended to the lady who was involved in selling AI solutions for customer service and all that, she said that she wasn't beginning to see a correlation between the information she finds and how likely they are to take a meeting. The things that will come up was enough for her to know whether OK, this is a serious something or this is not a serious something.

So you never know. Now because of that, it leads to shorter sales cycle cycles because you're able to have much more productive conversations in a shorter amount of time. And it's, I know it will slow you down, but in a way it's much more efficient. But just know it will slow you down. So for those of you who are used to calling plenty, plenty calls like that Lady was doing about 120 calls every day. For those who are doing 120

calls every day, this thing will slow you the hell down, but there's some benefits, so just be patient. So there's some kind of information that we're looking for when we're doing data enrichment. So for B to B, that is business to business. You selling to a business? Like I'm trying to sell into Ministry of Finance, now I'm trying to sell into Ministry of Finance, now I'm trying to sell into Zenith Bank or something.

Then it's not just enough to have phone numbers. If I can know the job of the person, the title of the person within the department or within the company or the industry or the company size, or I know the person's professional history, some of these small, small things, they can help. When I get the person on the phone and we are beginning to converse or I go to the person's office and we're having a conversation, it can help.

That's more the information we're looking for. Now for BTC, that is business to consumer. That is you're selling individual, you're selling to one-on-one, just you and one person. You know, you never know whatever you can find the person's location, the person's interest, the person age, I mean, you never know. These things can help. These are some of the things that we're keeping on an eye for. So the approach once we have all this data now is we cannot have personalized engagement.

And that is what builds rapport and part of what builds trust because it feels like I'm talking to somebody. In fact, those one time I had to do some business with the also in the project I was doing for the British Council and they wanted me to interview some of their project partners, the FCDO. And when I called in FCDO, at some point lady has had to ask me, look, do you know, have you met also or so before I told her, Oh no, no, no, I just did my research before calling you guys.

She felt as if the person that I was trying to get through to because she was the PA of the person. Well, luckily I did my research on hands. So even me I need some I need some small stuff about her. So she was even her she was as if you already know this guy before I say no, today is my first time just buzzing you guys. I just did my research ahead of time, but we see the conversation was flowing. Now her name is one of those Yoruba names that is unisex.

So I needed to do deter enrichment because if I call, I say what's up bro? I say I'm not a bro I'm I'm a woman how you see conversations off the wrong food. If I say good afternoon, Ma I said look, this is not him. I miss a conversation is off onto the wrong food. So at the very least I need to do data enrichment that this person that I'm calling is he a guy or is he a woman. He's one of those things when I was growing up were me more or do any more than you were guys.

But I doubt moved to Abuja ahead of our worry more there's a woman and I'm wondering how now worry more is a guy's name, but I've been told and some Yoruba names are unisex. So you can see. Well, I take my mom's case. Everybody knows my mom as Ben. So my mom has always been Ben. And because there's some people call and they say good afternoon Sir and then my mom will say oh, I'm not a Sir, that I'm a woman. Is the conversation not begin to fumble because you didn't do data enrichment ahead of time?

Don't assume that every single band you know is a girl. There's some bands that are women. I even have two cousins who also go by the name Ben, but they're babes. So you can see that this data enrichment thing be it helps. You never know, you'll do some random searches. He's actually he's a female show. At least now you know, you start the conversation off on the right foot. It sounds personalized. So tools for data enrichment.

Now, I spoke about Apollo dot IO and like I said, to be honest, until last year I didn't know this thing existed. So it's the guy who I'm currently training his sales team in solar. He's the one that told me last year about Apollo dot IO and we're going to be doing some more work in Apollo because right now one of his people in, they're going to recruit a new salesperson whose function is just going to be that going into Apollo dot IO, fleshing out more data on people so that they can have targeted targeted outreach when it comes to corporate clients.

So I'm going to be getting more experience in Apollo dot IO, so I'll keep you guys posted. So Apollo dot IO, that's one of them. Before then, I'd heard about clear bit, I'd heard about Zoom info, I'd heard about Crunch base. You know all those ones, those of you who are in the text space, all of that, you know, you guys, you know, familiar with these ones. But for those of you who do not know these tools and you know,

in the text space, like I told you, there's no excuse. Keep Truecola open on your tab permanent. Truecola open permanent, Google open permanent. At least do that research, copy and paste and see what comes up. If nothing comes up because there's some people that you put it in Truecaller, the name that will come up is Itchy Scratchy 456. Yeah, really. There's some people who don't. You can't get any information. Well, in that case, just try and look.

But for lots of people, you'll be able to get some data. Like I mentioned in the previous episode, there are some class of individuals that this is not going to happen, particularly Yoruba names. Are they me? Are they Tongy? That's a very popular name. So if that's the name that comes up, I put it on Google. You will see like 250 a DME a day, 20. So which one is the correct 1? I don't know. So yes, you run into trouble for some of those Yoruba names in particular before or and then also some some people names too,

you know, like teenagers. A common name. What else to call America is a common name. And then sometimes it's a terrible combination like Chineduchuko and Mecca. In that case, you know, Wahala. But outside of those issues, you should be able to find some good information out there. Then another tool for data enrichment. I've noticed that lots of you now are paying for LinkedIn Sales Navigator. That's one of the paid features on LinkedIn and allows you to check anybody's profile.

For those of you who do not have the paid profiles, it's not everybody's profile. You can look, you click on some people's profile, the thing won't allow you, I won't allow you to message everybody when I want to start having the paid LinkedIn features. Yes, you're able to message lots of people and you're able to look at lots of people's profiles. So LinkedIn Sales Navigator, you can use that for data enrichment because remember, what we have is a phone number or what we have is a name.

We're trying to get some more information. At least with LinkedIn Sales Navigator, you'll be able to see that. Oh, OK, that Malam Kabiru used to work in MTN. Later on, they transferred him to NCC and after NCC, he has been on his own as a government contractor from 2010 until 2023. At least you've seen some more information. It helps. Then of course, online business directories, I don't even know how those people get their information.

It's scary. But the information is there because like one time I decided to check the old company that my brother and I used to do business under, and I checked and surprisingly The thing is still there. The information is how those people got it. I don't know. If you check on the company name, you see me and my brother listed there as directors with our name in full. Our phone number is there, the business address we registered,

The thing is there. What else? Even the paid up capital that we have for the I was, and I don't know how this online business directory people get the information. Watch out. They get the information anyway. So I'm just saying that there are lots of tools that you can use, but remember when you're doing data enrichment, in my own opinion, please, one or two minutes. If you're spending 5 minutes, 10 minutes investigating one person, you're wasting too much time and you're getting more and more scared.

So just, you know, sharp, sharp one or two minutes, make this phone call done, Enter your notes in CRM, schedule the next thing, and then move on to the next person. Copy, paste, do research. Sharp, sharp, one or two minutes, done, then make the next call. Keep it moving. So like I said, the goal of data enrichment is to give you more information about the person so you can figure out the next best thing to do to win their business or to win their trust.

So that's the goal of data enrichment. In the beginning, when it's just a name or a number, you don't know the best thing. Should I call, Should I go to the office? Should I send e-mail? Should I send WhatsApp? I don't know. But at least with data enrichment, when you see it, you now begin to get some some ideas. Because if your job is to call primarily and make sure you call first. Then do the other things later. So with the name and with the number and with the other data that we've been able to get, at least we'll be able to know who they are and get a sense of how we can start chasing them.

And that's it. And that's all for the data enrichment episode. I hope I've been able to explain it a lot, a lot better than I did the last time. So that's it and that is all. Remember, if you would love to connect, you can call SMS on WhatsApp me on 08064662140. Thank you for your time and attention. I will catch you next time. Same place in your headphones or in your speakers.