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Hello and welcome to the show. I'm taking today's recording from my desk with the kids at home, so expect to hear some noise in the background. Well, and also some of the neighborhood kids are just running around having fun, you know, doing the thing that children like to do. Today on the podcast, we're going to be looking at whether you can convince anybody to buy from you or to buy beyond their budget. It's a question that was put to me from the gentleman who is in the crypto business, you know,
selling crypto, doing currency exchanges and those sorts of things. So we had the conversation not long ago and I figured let me come over here real quick and share some of the insights. You know, some show share some of the value that we spoke about. Now this podcast is the listener participated show, so you can send me your WhatsApp messages, you can call, you can SMS. The number to reach me out on is 08064662140. Again, 08064662140.
The country code is +234. So if you want a strategy session, a business audit or you have questions, just reach out to me, just like this gentleman who is a currency and crypto trader did. But before we begin, shout out to Solomon Udo, listener of the show, who reached out to me on LinkedIn. We also had some WhatsApp chats. Now let me head straight into this conversation. Oh, by the way, the young man, if you're listening, you know,
I'm not using your name, obviously, you know, to protect your identity, but of course you suspect that, you know, is it the conversation he just had with me? Yes, it is. It's you, so let me see OK, so now First off, the first conversation that I had with the young man was this looking at his profile, I was finding it difficult to figure out exactly what he did because you know everything was there Currency trading is there cryptocurrency is there, you know everything sharp a whole list.
So I asked the guy, what do you do? And then he copied and pasted his bio for me. Now, unfortunately, his bio is just a list of all the different services that he do he he does. So that was the first part of our conversation, which is, look, you need to come up with a concise way for letting people know what you do for business purposes. You know, it doesn't help, It doesn't lend for a smooth conversation to just copy and paste a laundry list of everything you do.
And then you leave it up to the person, like go and digest this thing, understand it on your own. And in fact, I haven't told him that given the context of where we are, you know, Niger, some people might even consider that rude. Like I asked you a question. What do you do when you copy and paste the laundry list? Like, am I supposed to read the whole laundry list? And then he wanted to know specifically what was wrong with the formulation.
But I told him that, look, I can't even tell you what was wrong because to be honest, I didn't read it. You copied and pasted it. I opened and I saw that it was an, a pistol and I just shut the screen. So I didn't even read it. And chances are other people are not going to read it as well. Now what I suggested for him to make progress is I told him, just carry that laundry list, copy and paste it into Google Gemini or char GPT and then give it an instruction.
Tell it create a LinkedIn bio for me or create a Facebook bio and Instagram bio using the information below and then hit send. And I promise you that whatever it is that char GPT or Gemini would put out would be much more concise, would be a lot better than just taking a laundry list of seven to 10 services that you offer and then just send it to people. This is also the equivalent of this thing, you know, when people say the elevator pitch,
the idea behind the elevator pitch is if you have a shop, is it 3 minutes with someone and you want to get the person to understand what it is that they do. You should be able to just say, you know, sharply so that in that brief moment of time you have, you know, 3 minutes, 5 minutes, the person gets it. This is who you are, This is what you do. So it's the same approach, just like in reality, we're supposed to have an elevator pitch also online, we need to have short,
short, straight, straight to the point responses. So when people ask what do you do? You can just send them the information and it will properly pass across the services or the products that you deal in. By the way, I have my own unique philosophy about how you should answer that question, but I'm going to tackle that in another episode. Now, the next thing, and this is how the guy will know that I'm talking about him.
His picture, his profile picture was a hooded fox. Oh, by the way, before we had this conversation, I asked him straight off, look, are you OK for some straight talk? And the reason why I asked him was because I wanted to be brutally honest with him because, you know, I'm a Nigerian, he's a Nigerian, I'm a young guy, he's a young guy. So I need to shoot straight with him. I need to be frank because in this part of the world, when people hear crypto, I know some of you say it's only uneducated people.
Look, whether educated or uneducated in this part of the world, when people hear crypto, they think 419, they think scammers, they think G boys, they think grifters, they think all kinds of things. Yes, some of us are educated, you know like me, first degree in law, my wife is in securities regulation. So I understand what these assets are. I choose not to deal in them. But it still doesn't change the fact that a large number of Nigerians when they hear crypto,
that is what they think. They think a young man who is trying to run faster than his shadow, somebody who is trying to scam me, that is what people think. So I told him that look, let's be real, here in Nigeria of today, you're dealing in cryptocurrency. People already think scammer G boy, you want your profile picture to be a hooded fox. And I told him I look, times have changed. 20 years ago it was OK for me to have as my profile picture of Bugs Bunny because I think me and Bugs Bunny, you know what kindred spirits.
There was also a time when my profile picture was the Incredible Hulk because back in the day, I used to be fit, like very fit. So I founded myself, you know, I founded myself a beefcake back in the day. So that was my profile picture Incredible Hulk, you know, so my small cousins, you know, used to call me Biggie Kefty. Those are some other things that people used to call me. So my profile picture was Incredible Hulk, but I was 20
years ago now. Times have changed. We're no longer in the age of anonymous profiles. So please, whatever business you do, it doesn't have to be cryptocurrency. If you're a fashion designer or whatever, please put your face. OK, Well, if you're a fashion designer, I guess you can get away with putting a picture of one of the dresses you have designed. And if you're a cake person, I guess you can get away with putting a picture of one of the cakes that you have baked.
But for the rest of us who do not have that privilege, if you're some sort of a consultant or some sort of a service provider like this guy who's selling crypto, put your face, especially in Nigeria where if somebody hears crypto, they think scammer. The least you can do is humanize yourself. And I'm glad that he took that. He took that suggestion on board. And by the way, for those of you who are going to reach out to me in the future, when I'm being brutally honest with you, I'm not trying to call squirrel.
I'm not trying to put you down, it's just that I have a limited amount of time. I prefer to prioritise my client work. So when we're having these free consultations, I like to get, you know, straight to the point. So sometimes I'll call it like I see it. If I've made a mistake and you explain, you know, I'll apologise and I'll take dressing that. Oh, OK. I didn't look at things the right way. But just know that when you reach out, if I'm straight to the point, I'm not trying to be confrontational here.
I'm just trying to maximize the time that we have together when we now move straight to the Coco. The main thing he wanted to know, he wanted to know, how do you convince people to buy outside of their budget, to buy beyond their budget? So This is why I explained to him, I told him that look, you're in the crypto business. The answer to your question is you don't. You can't. You can't convince somebody to buy outside of their budget.
I told them that even in ordinary, normal things like me, that I'm selling sales coaching and business development consulting, I can't convince anybody to buy who doesn't already think that there's a problem with the business. If somebody thinks that every single thing is fine, I can't convince the person to do anything. Sales is not about convincing people to do XYZ. Sales is about figuring out who is already aligned, who is already interested, who is already motivated.
And then you align your pitch or your presentation with them to show that the thing I'm selling, the service I provide, can get you to the promised land. It can help you fulfill these results. It can get you to where you want to go. That is what sales is about. It's not about convincing people to do something. I can't convince people to do nothing. I can't. So I spend my time looking for people who already think they have a problem with the business and who are looking for ways to get this business better.
And then I spend my time having conversations with those people. Back in my wedding photography days, if a bride looked at my pictures and she didn't feel it, she's not feeling the photos. I cannot convince her to do nothing. Best I can do is maybe lower the price and then she's just doing it because, well, the guy is cheap. And then before you know it, all kinds of unnecessary quarrel because truly, the one that she desires is not what is not what she paid for.
Please let us change our mind. There are too many people who are running around feeling that sales is the art of convincing people to do XYZ. Sales is not about convincing. It's about getting, trying to figure out somebody's motivations. What is at the back of their mind, What is treating them? What are they running to? What are they running away from? Can my product or my service help them get there faster, solve this problem?
That is what you That's what we do in this business. If you sell beauty products, don't bother coming to somebody like me. I don't even rob Vaseline. You cannot convince me to buy your beauty products. You can't because for me, I don't even rub Vaseline. And when I met my babe now my wife, I told her that look, Vaseline and lip gloss is fine for her. Unfortunately, we came back to Nigeria and then she started following Nigerian girls and now she will use his makeup and blah blah, blah, blah, blah.
You know, that's a long story, but I'm not saying that if you sell beauty products, don't waste your time talking to people like me. I'm not a believer. I will never buy your makeup. Somebody's talking to me about sunscreen. I don't suncreen. I don't even use Vaseline. You're now you want me to go out and buy sunscreen? Like, like what? So you sell makeup. The goal is looking for people who are already preoccupied with their skin, who already want their skin to be smooth, or who think that their acne is a problem or who feel like their skin is deficient in this way or in that way.
And then you align the oh Madam or brass with these problems that you have. My products can help you achieve your skin goals like this. Yeah, sorry about that. I won't even explain what happened, but I'm sure you can figure it out. Actually, The thing is, I dropped the phone. Anyway, thank God for phone case. I hope the sound wasn't too jarring for you guys anywhere, was I? I was on this whole thing about convincing. So please let us stop thinking that sales is about convincing people to do XYZ.
There's no convincing in sales. Look for who's already a believer, look for who's already motivated, look for who's already aligned and then spend most of your time with them, especially if you're in crypto. Because those of you who are doing crypto, when people hear crypto in Niger now in 2025, maybe things will change in 20-30. But in 2025, when people hear crypto, they think, Gee boy, sharp boy, sharp tongue, grifter, scammer, that's that's what they think.
So those of you who are professionals in the space, don't say only uneducated people think so don't say that because there are people who have two 3-4 masters who believe the same thing. All right, by the way, that's just an industry problem that you people have, and you guys will figure out ways to solve it with time. But bottom line, please, you're not going to convince anybody to do nothing. Look for the person who's already sold, talk to them.
So my advice to him was instead of talking to people and trying to convince them, look for people who are already sold In Abuja last year, there was a conference in crypto at NAV Centre, National Air Force Women something event Centre and the place was full. I think it seats like 4000. I went there and I was surprised that the place was full front to back. People live on outside. I say, hey, so Nigerians like crypto like this.
Like I had no idea that is where you should be going. There's a seminar about crypto. The place is parked full. I mean, obviously half the people there, 80% of the people there already bought in. That is where you will now look for people to buy crypto on your exchange. It's not from sending broadcast to people like me. Look around Facebook groups, WhatsApp groups, Instagram chats, Reddit forums where people are already bought in and already believe these sorts of things.
Start having conversations with them. That is where you're going to find people that should be having conversations with. If you're having conversations with people like me who are not interested, not aligned, not bought in, not motivated, you'll be wasting your time. You spend more time with these other people. You will find more people to buy into your crypto exchange or into your use your crypto wallet or whatever.
Then on the thing of budget, this is what I told the guy and this is what I'm going to tell you guys. Budgets are fake. Budgets don't exist. Budgets are not really a thing. People say this is my budget, but true of matter is if somebody's really interested or motivated, somehow they find the money. Don't ask me how it happens. I just know that shy it happens. You're looking at somebody, you're talking, it sounds as if they don't have the money or blah, blah, blah.
But you can tell that she really likes it. And then somehow, somehow, somehow, you know, she pays. Or my uncle decided to give me some photography or I was able to get money from Mumsy. Or you can see that she harasses the hell out of her boyfriend and then the boyfriend pays for you to be the wedding photographer. So I don't know how it happens, but just know that if people are interested share, they buy it and look around all the people that are buying the latest their iPhone, Pro Mac something,
something something you really think they have a budget for it. But because they think it's important somehow, they will raise the money. Or the boys who are buying this Samsung V Fold something at, you know, 1.5, you know, like who has 1.5 cash just lying around, but you think it's important and you find a way. So budgets are not real. Don't be Hanford by budget when you're having a conversation with someone and if you get to the point where you understand that there's a problem, there's a need, there's a sense of urgency, but then the person is not really willing to go ahead.
OK, then yes, budget was a genuine concern. You know, there's nothing you can do, just let that go. But for most people, budget is not really a thing. And then when the average person says budget, it does not mean I have money on allocated lying around. It doesn't mean I have free money lying around. It just means that this is what I think this kind of thing should cost. That is what it means. We should be having conversation with people because sometimes when people have this idea of this is how much they should cost, sometimes they have an unrealistic opinion or they have an uninformed opinion.
So my advice to him was this. When you're talking to somebody about all your crypto stuff and somebody says you're too expensive, first of all, you lean in. You say our Bros, I understand. Oh, Mummy, I understand. Nowadays in this stable economy, we don't spend money anyhow. But Mummy, when you say I'm too expensive, you know, compared to what or which other exchange have you tried? And if Mummy responds, and from my response, you can see that you are the first person she's contacting, you give mommy some education.
So mommy, no wonder I'm the first person that you're talking to. If you've gone to the market, you would have seen that Mommy, there are different kinds of exchanges. There are these kinds of exchange. This kind of exchange. This kind of exchange in this kind is usually between this and this for this kind is really between this and this for this kind is really between this and this. But mommy, let me advise you in your best interest.
Don't talk to people who are within here and here. That is where you you're going to get scammed. But Mommy, just go and ask, go and do your own research. Why don't you do your research? Let's talk again next week and then leave the conversation like that. But it's that Mummy goes and does more research on alternative, alternative investments as they call them these days. By the time she goes and does recently alternative investment space, she will now see that OK,
your price is reasonable or whatever. But of course, this only works if you know that your prices are reasonable. If your prices are not reasonable and you're charging a premium, you know that's a different conversation entirely. And you know, you have to be ready to justify that or fix your brand positioning so that when people see you, they know that, OK, this is a premium thing that I'm going in for. But either way, when people say budget, it doesn't mean money is just lying around.
It just means this is how much I think something should cost. We need to figure out whether the expectations are realistic or not. And like I told him, if you're trying to sell to a jam bite, if you're trying to sell to a newbie, you're trying to sell to somebody who is fresh. They have no idea what they have to, what they have to expect anyway. So when people say you're too expensive, the question really is, oh, compared to what or who else have you spoken to?
Because you're also trying to get information so that you can distinguish. Because sometimes somebody might say that your crypto whatever is too expensive. I'd want to host my whatever on your crypto wallet. Sorry, forgive me. You know, I'm not into the admin of all these things, you know, so I don't know how it works on administration, but let's just say you have to pay to host to pay to be on a wallet or something. OK, But even if there's no pain to be on the wallet.
But anyway, let me not talk more than I know. But what I'm trying to say people say is OK, it's too expensive for me to use your wallet and blah blah, blah, blah, blah. You have to ask compared. To who or who else have you spoken with or whatever? Because truly, truly, maybe the other people's own is cheaper, but maybe yours is more expensive because you you're adding extra features of wallet protection or identity protection or something,
validation or whatever. And that is something you need to bring up now. OK, OK, mommy, OK. Oh, I understand, Mommy. I see where the problem is now. The reason why this guy, his own is $20, you know, whatever, whatever, whatever is because they're providing you the base package. Only me, my own is $60.00. Because apart from the hosting, we also provide this authentication, this encryption, this, this, this, that, that,
this, that, that. So your whatever is much, your investments are much more secure with us. But if you don't ask that question compared to who or who else have you spoken with or what other options are there, you will not know that this is how to distinguish the options that are before you. So I think that was all on the budget thing, but then the guy kicked back on the broadcast thing. You know, when I said don't waste your time broadcasting.
And by the way, when you're having conversations with me, you know, I'm OK, I'm cool with that. It's a conversation. I'm not calling you to shout at you or to dictate to you. This is a conversation. This is how we try to learn stuff. So he told me that look, we send broadcasts in this industry as a part of lead Gen. to put people into our funnel and then we can convert. And I said, OK, my brother, I'm with you. So I told him if you send 100
messages, how many people respond? He said 50. And I said, AH is a lie because no industry has 50% response rates. None. And by the way, if you have 50% response rate, just know that you're a copywriting genius, that you're sending out 100 messages, 50 people are responding. I mean, props tops to you What? I mean, he insisted that 50 people respond. So I said OK, no problem. So if 50 people respond, let me know how it goes then.
And he says OK, from the 50 that respond. When it now comes to buying, people are not buying because they say they were only curious. Then the thing made sense, like, oh, OK, OK, OK. Now I see what's going on here. And I told him, look, the market is giving you valuable feedback. If truly you're sending 100 messages, 50 people are responding. And when you say, oh, yeah, this is how we're going to do it, you know, transfer money to this account to begin.
And they say, oh, no, no, no. I was just curious. Take the feedback from the market that truly, truly, truly, most of the people that are coming to you are only curious. So instead of trying to close the deal and getting people to buy your crypto products immediately, what you should be doing is your funnel should now be based on education where you're getting people to take the next step. So your first set of messages should be around something like have you considered alternative investments or are you strictly in the traditional investments?
Or is your portfolio strictly in traditional investments? Send that message. 50 people, 50% will respond and they will say, well, I'm in traditional investments, but I want to consider alternative investments. And then, you know, you just take conversations forward one step at a time. OK, When you say alternative investments, what kind of asset classes do you have in mind and hear what they say? Some people will say Bitcoin,
some people will say what's the other one? Again, I can't remember. You know, there are plenty these days, somebody will say Bitcoin, another person will say another asset, another person will say this and up, you know, on and on and on and on and on. Then you are now going to be will now have the burden of educating them along the way. I say, oh, OK, we're going to be holding a seminar on so, so so so day where we'll be explaining Ethereum to brand new Ethereum.
That's the second one. Ethereum to brand new investors. Would you like to attend the webinar? Oh yes, I would and I'll send them the link. They now show up on the webinar and then you are educating them on Ethereum. You know, what is Ethereum? How does Ethereum work? Is Ethereum better than Bitcoin? Why is Ethereum better than Bitcoin? Why? Where should you use Ethereum over Bitcoin? You know all these sorts of things As you're taking them through these steps and educating them along the way,
you are now beginning to stand out as a valuable service provider and you are building some credibility. These are the things that will make it easier for you to close the sale later on. So I just told him, look, you have to change your funnel. It can't be a matter of are you interested? Give me money. That funnel is too short. If 50% of people have told you that they're just curious, then what you do is need to take them on the journey and be educating them along each step.
You now try and get them to move one step, one step, one step. So the first one is, are you in traditional? Is your portfolio in traditional investments or in alternative investments? People respond, would you like to learn some more? They say yes, OK, here's the webinar link. You see, that's the next step. You see the move for step by step then? But people that go to the webinar, maybe the next step, OK, sorry, another notification came in, so maybe the next step now might be OK.
So for those of you who have attended the webinar and who are interested, next we're going to do a demo so that you can see how Ethereum is mined or how you purchase Ethereum or how you put these assets in your wallet or whatever. Would you like to see that demo? Some people will say yes. For the people that say yes, you will now send them another link for the next webinar where you're going to show them how you do this thing live.
And you know, small by small, you just be moving people forward. One step, one step, one step, ultimately till you get to the close. Of course, since I'm freestyling now, I can't just design the funnel off the top of my head. But given enough time, given enough time, you know, maybe 30 minutes, one hour, two or three days, you know, you can't sit down and design this funnel from start to finish and then run it that way.
So that's how I left it with the guy. And I just thought there might be some valuable Nuggets for some of you, especially if there's still some crypto Bros on crypto babes listening to this podcast. I was assuming that because of the things I talk about that by now, people who are into crypto and alternative investments and people who are into multi level marketing. I was assuming that by now all of you would have failed from this podcast.
But I'm glad to see that you guys are still here so we can still keep having this conversation. So any, any questions, just let me know. Give my phone number at the beginning of the show. Giving it now 08064662140 country code +234. If you are not Nigerian, call me SMS. What's up? Love to hear from you guys. It's not just me who's educating you guys, you guys educating me as well. You know, at least the more people I talk to, the more I
know what's really going on in Niger. What are people doing? What are people investing in? Was raining, was not raining, was working, was not working. So love to hear from you guys. So thank you very much for your time and attention. I'll catch you guys at the next episode.