Is Your Sales Approach a Waste of Time?

Hello and welcome. My name is Tavishima Aidi. I'm the host of the podcast, and I'm making today's recording at home. So expect to hear some noise in the background. Plus it's a rainy afternoon, and the goal of the podcast is solving business problems. So if you're struggling to get customers, you have issues with marketing issues such as side hustle, or you think something is holding your business 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, you can call SMS or WhatsApp me on 08064662140. Now today on the podcast, I want to talk about something I've spoken about in the past and that is data enrichment. Again, data enrichment, DATA data not date her, like DATE HER. That's not that kind of podcast. So data enrichment, just look at what it is and how we can make you more successful when you're having conversations with potential customers, with potential clients.

Now, the reason why I want to talk about this today is because I've been having a series of, you know, engagements, conversations, chats, whatever it is you want to call it with podcast listeners. And there's one of them in particular who is involved in the sale of software and services for customer service and customer satisfaction. So she's an employee and, you know, her or gas business and that's essentially what the Orga does.

Now this is the problem, just like the people that I'm currently training now in solar and excuse me and some other people I've worked with in the past, lots of you who are in this sales situation. The problem is you guys wake up every day, you go to the office, you sit down at your desk, you now boot up your laptop, and then you now have the stack of phone numbers to call. And the problem is these phone numbers have no information attached to them.

Let me repeat. So excuse me. So whether you sell solar, whether you're selling software solutions, whether you're selling educational software or whether you're selling coaching services or whatever, The thing is, you show up every day, you boot your computer, and then you now have a stack of phone numbers to call #1 So excuse me, that was a long day. Coaching engagements back-to-back. So you have from #1 to #40 and the only thing you can see is 080 dot dot dot dot so, so, so and so best case scenario,

there's a name attached. You don't have to call that person. So this lady now and other people in that situation, what most people do is you already have a skull, a script, your head that you've memorized. You now call every single person using that same script. Now it's not bad. In a way it's good because at least you have sales script. It's better than what I used to do before and what lots of people do, which is you just call and begin the freestyle.

So you don't even have a plan. You just call Shah and you know, you think anyhow, anyhow, Shah, something will click. So the people who have a script, at least they're making some progress. What is the problem? Conversations have to be personalized and conversations have to be adapted to the particular person that you're talking to. If not the people that you're calling, you will sound scripted. You will sound like a robot.

You will sound like a salesperson. You will sound like, you will sound like, can you please just get off the phone? Like I have better things to do than to just be answering these kind of phone calls. So that's the problem. Conversations have to be personalized even when you have a script. But The thing is, you can't personalize the conversation if you don't have an idea of who you're talking to at the end of time. Sorry ahead of time.

So there's a phone number there that says 080 dot dot dot dot electrical or an essay. That's the only information how you know the start of this phone call, How you know whether you say good morning, Sir, or good morning, chief, or good morning Bros, or good day or hi or hello. You don't even know how to start the call because you just have one phone number. The best is you have phone number, you have name, how you call this person, how you personalize this conversation,

how you be relatable to this person. This is where data enrichment comes in. Data enrichment just means I have some data. But I suppose, you know, let me pack it, let me give it body, let me add some more information so I have a better understanding of who this person is before I pick the phone and before I make that call or before I send that information. That is what data enrichment is all about. I have all these 50 contacts.

I think it's a good idea to call. Maybe because they responded to my advertisement that I put online, or maybe it's because I paid somebody. So they went online to go and look at business directory. They gave me these phone numbers. They think this is the best phone number to call. Or maybe I went for a business show, a business Expo. Some people came, they wrote their names and phone numbers on my list, you know, I have Asha.

There's a list. I have to call these people, I suppose, do some data enrichment so that before I pick up the phone call, I know something else apart from 080. This, this is that that, that Kilichi or Haneze. I need to know some more. Now. I've already spoken about this in the past where I spoke about my own simple stack. Nowadays everybody likes to say tack stack. I have text stack, this stack, that stack. So me ma, I have my own text stack and my simple stack is this.

And for those of you who are going to reach out on WhatsApp, some of you will ask the question because some of you are surprised. You say, how did you know my name? You put my name in full. I'm saying it again here live. I'm letting you know ahead of time when you reach out to me. The reason why I know your real name in full before you even told me is because I go through this process with every single person before I make a phone call or before I engage in a conversation.

That is the only way that I stand a chance in building some rapport. I'm making this conversation sound, you know, fluid sound. OK sound. All right, so my simple stack is this true color. I will take your number and paste it in true color. If you reach out to me, If I have anybody I'm supposed to call, I will take that number and I'll paste it in Truecaller even when I have a name, because I'm curious and I want to see what name comes up.

The way that the name comes up sometimes can give you some signals, like for the solar people, I told them, look, take this. When you put this number in Truecaller, what came up? So I didn't do that. We did it and we saw one fortified name, you know, I can't remember, maybe like guy risky or something, you know, just one of those names. And I said this guy is a like, he's a normal boy now this guy is slaying a normal boy.

So like when you call him, you don't have to be so afraid or whatever. Like how I put it, getting some background info on somebody gives you lots of ideas about how to attack the call. No, no attack is too strong. How do I approach the call? So anyway, if you reach out to me and I know your full name, this is how true colour the name will come up. I take the name, I throw it into Google and then social media comes up and other resources come up.

It gives me an idea of who the person is. Unfortunately, some names are very, very popular, like Ademi Adenka. If you go and check Ademi Adenka, I won't be surprised if there's like 600 of them online. So it's one of those things. So if somebody's name is Adenka Adeni, then I'm afraid there's not much data enrichment you can do. They're just too many. Let me see, what other name again? You understand, shall you? You know what I mean?

OK. Like Chukwudi and wearing, yes, that's also another popular, Well, not too popular because you couldn't wear them. They're not too diminished, but not too many. What other name again? Anyway, so apart from those scenarios where the person's name comes up as a dating car Aderemy or a disorgy Aderemy or a dating car, well, you get the picture. You can't do much data enrichment, but doing this simple stack for more than half the people you call, you turn up some information.

Now the advantage is when you do this, you will not be able to have a tailored and personalized call and you won't sound like a robot or an average salesperson. Also, sometimes you can discover whether this is a person that you should be calling or not. It depends. Like for the lady who sells customer service solutions and stuff like that, she did the basic search. She now saw. Anyway, let me not say, let me not say everything because you say I'm being classist, that I'm saying that certain kinds of people are like this, are like that.

So she did. And then based on information she saw, she was like, this does not look like the person who's going to be using customer service software, but she called anyway. And it turns out that her suspicions were correct. But you see, she had some background information before she made the call. She was able to confirm one or two things. And she knows that this is not a promising lead. So data enrichment, it helps.

Now let me give you an example, another example about how this will help you determine whether you should be talking to this person or not, or how you should start off the phone call. For instance, there are people who have been reaching out to me for the last three months. They've been telling me that I should optimize my Google My Business profile. I've spoken about Google My Business on the podcast before, so there's no need to explain.

Again, some people have been reaching out to me to say how far you know how to optimize your Google My Business profile. I can help you. I can help you do that. We're not expensive. So people have been reaching out. Now, if they had followed the simple process, this is what they will discover. Step one, they got my contact details from business directories. That's good. Unfortunately, on most business directories I'm listed as IED,

film and photography because you guys know that I started off in events and it's almost 2 decades that that listing has been up. It'll take a while, you know, before people realize I'm no longer in that business. But sure, for most people, if you check business directories, that's how you find my number. And that's the reason why everybody goes straight to Google My Business because they will see that OK, this guy is a business as a photographer, but the last time his Google My Business page was updated was like 7 years ago.

So this is a prime candidate. Everybody jumps. They only stop at step one. But if they did Step 2, which is take the number and put it in Truecaller, it's not the business name that will show up. It is my real name that will show up. If they now do Step 3, which is take my real name and put it in Google from the links, the plenty links that will show, it will become very clear that man, even though this guy's number is under business, under business directories as ID, film and photography.

From the links you will see, because believe me, I have over 1100 episodes of the podcast done, it will be clear that I have left my photography days behind. You'll be able to see that I am now a business consultant. I'm now a public speaker. I'm now a podcaster. And you will also notice that there is no Google My Business listing for my new businesses. That is deliberate. I'm not going to bother or Google My Business.

I'm not going to bother our website, but look, that is me being deliberate about some things is because for me, I'm using the podcast as a lead generation, as an Ave. for lead generation, but we'll talk more about that later. But don't copy me. For most people, you do need to go and source up your go and you know, make it nice your Google My Business profile. So if you do this basic research, you will now already have an idea about me before you make that call.

Now these people will now be able to change their call script instead of calling me or sending me messages and saying hello, Would you like to improve your Google My Business listing for Ayede Film and Photography? We are the best, we are the cheapest, 50% off, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. They will now be able to change their approach in a manner that is relevant. Because anybody who reaches out to me saying hello, Ayede Film and Photography, I just ignore.

It's not relevant. It's not tailored, it's not personalized. You see how by not following this simple step, the simple steps, it won't take you up to two minutes. This thing really helps. So now if anybody follows a simple process, they will now be able to say something like this. Then I'll be able to say, hey, Congrats on the podcast. I can see the podcast is really growing. I love your episode about blah blah blah. Have you thought about having a G MB listing for your podcast?

You can see that, OK, now this one is kind of personalized because at least it is saying Google My Business listing, but he's saying it for the podcast or for consulting business. You can see how data enrichment can help or the person can say, OK, Congrats on the growth of the podcast. I noticed that now your focus for business growth seems to be LinkedIn and the podcast. So would you like to? I'll put it now I'll put it,

I've lost my train of thought anyway, but you get what I'm trying to say. But just by doing this data enrichment, you'll be able to come up with some clever ideas and how best to start the conversation. Even though I can't remember the second, the second idea that I had that this thing could go, but either way, the person is going to have a productive conversation with me and the person will sound like a professional who can deliver value because the person knows that, yes, I used to be a photographer.

Now this is what I'm doing. And the solutions that the person offers, these are the possible benefits that he can bring to me. We could have a fruitful conversation. OK, 15 minutes. I just want to make sure that this thing doesn't go too long. So now let's go back to the podcast listener. I told her based on discussion that we had, I told her step one, just be doing data enrichment, that once you do data enrichment, you'll find out that your life will be a lot easier.

She said, OK, let me try it. So the reason why I'm making this podcast episode is because it's been 2 days. So she reached out. She said I tried it. And I said, what was the results? And she said there's plenty of work that is hard. And then I smiled and I said, yeah, it is. But I told you that it will slow down your call volume because in that industry, they like to make plenty calls in a day, like 150 calls a day. If you're doing data enrichment,

I can assure you, you will not be able to make 150 calls in a day. Your call volume will crash. Maybe our best be able to do like 30 to 50 in a day. So yes, our call volume crashed immediate. But guess what, she now knows before she picks the phone whether this person is a good person to call or not. And now when she has conversations with people before she hands it over to the sales team, it is now a better quality contact that she's handing over.

So there was an immediate effect, call volume crashed, but then quality went up. Now the problem is most organs would not like to hear the call volume crash. They will say haha in KG how far last week you are doing average of 150 calls per day. This week so far you've only been doing 30 calls per day. What is happening? So yes, I know that the average and general guy will not be happy. But I can tell you that this whole thing about data enrichments, it, it makes a world of a difference for those of us who have to grow businesses by picking up the phone and calling people.

Assuming that you do not work for an auger who is going to say, look, call 100 people every day, call to 50 people every day. Just remember that it's not about the number of people that we talk to. It's not about the number of phone calls that we make. At the end of the day, it's about having the most productive conversations that we can have. It's about how productive. So we should be trying to have as many productive conversations as possible.

And data enrichment is the beginning of that process because at least before you pick up the call, you will now know that, OK, this guy is like this or these babies like that. Or at the very least, you know that this is a man or this is a woman. So that when you pick up before you can, you can say confidently, good morning, Sir. Because of course, it sucks if the number is there, there's no other information. You call and say, good morning,

Sir. And then you hear the woman's voice saying, I'm not a man, good morning. Who am I speaking with? You know already the call is off the wrong note. So at the very least, if you did do data enrichment, you know, whether if you say good morning, Sir or good morning, ma, if nothing else. So please, it's about the quality of the conversation and all the tips, tricks and tactics and things you talk about over here on the podcast are deliberately geared towards making sure that we have productive and good quality conversations.

The thing about speed is don't worry, you get faster over time. The more you do these things, you know, the faster you will get. But don't worry about speed now, just worry about quality now. Do as many as you can, but try and make sure that we're having good quality for phone calls. So that's it and that's all. Remember if you'd love to connect, call, SMS or WhatsApp me on 08064662140. Thank you for your time and attention.

I'll catch you next time. Same place in your headphones or in your speakers.