The Ultimate Guide to WhatsApp Networking

Hello and welcome to the show. It's available on Apple, on Spotify and on YouTube. I'm your host, Tavishima Ayede. If you'd like to connect with me to explore opportunities, then hit me up on 08064662140. The country code is +234. For those of you who are not Nigerian, it's my WhatsApp number as well, so you can call, you can send me a WhatsApp message to connect on social media. Just hit me up on LinkedIn. So today, OK, today, what I

would like us to discuss is, excuse me, is how to reach out to people on WhatsApp or SMS, you know, all those other outlets reaching out to prospects or reaching out to people that you're curious about and you want to run one or two things with them. Now, the reason why I'm making this podcast episode is because, well, by coincidence, I've received a couple of messages in the past couple of days. And you know, the messages are just, you know, hi, the person will just say hi and then not say anything else or the person will just say good morning and not say anything else.

Some people will just say hello and not say anything else. Some people will try and they will just write is this XYZ and not say anything else. And it seems to be a tradition in this part of the world in Nigeria. I don't know if those of you listening from different parts of the world, because I think we have like 30 something percent of listeners are in America. A few of you are in the Uki won't have some people, surprisingly, in China.

I don't know if you guys are actually Chinese or maybe it's Nigerian diaspora. So people listening, listening in different parts of the world. So I don't know if you guys have this kind of tradition there where you're just chilling, you know, with your phone and then the message comes in, ping him, you look and then the message is just hi and the person didn't say anything else. So now today's episode is just to help to, you know, deliver some common sense and to, you know, if you've been doing this kind of thing, you just have somebody message hi or just good morning.

You didn't put anything after that. Hopefully this message is going to or rather this podcast is going to help you take dressing on how to be much more effective when you're using WhatsApp, using SMS for outreach. Because a lot of the times you guys actually do have some pretty interesting things to say. You just don't know how to go about it, how to go about starting the conversation. So today I'm going to come up, I'm going to give you guys a simple conversation framework.

It applies face to face. It also applies e-mail, also applies text message and should help you guys get your start the out feature in a much more what's the word effective manner. Oh, by the way, in case I haven't figured out, this is going to be a noisy episode because I'm out and about to expect to hear some interruptions. Now, before we get into the meat of the topic, I'd like to shout out Genesis Benjamin. And I'm going to give him the award for the most interesting Nigerian name ever because I

have not come across well. We've come across some Nigerians who have two English names. It's rare, but those Nigerians exist. You know, like you'll find a Nigerian who is named Adam. OK, No, Adam Smith is is more of like an American thing. I can't remember. In fact, that's how rare they are. I can't even remember anyone right now who has one of those names. You know, like English name, English name, but of those people who have those sorts of names, I think this is the most unique name ever.

Genesis Benjamin, thank you very much for listening to the show. He discovered the show on Spotify, even sent me the screen grab to show what particular episode it was on. Thank you very much. I appreciate the enthusiasm. And then he reached out to me on WhatsApp. So Genesis Benjamin works with the Ogun State Broadcasting Corporation, if I remember correctly, and then he's into selling fashionable wristwatches, you know, all those sorts of things.

So thank you very much, Genesis Benjamin, our award winner for the most unique Nigerian name ever. At least on for now, until I come across another podcast listener who has a, you know, 2 step Nigerian name, you know, both English name and it's more unique than Genesis Benjamin. Oh, by the way, Genesis is his first name. So that's also another reason why I love my Nigerian people. You know, we always come up with pretty interesting names,

interesting names that make sense because I have that Elon Musk here that he named one of his children X or something like that. I'm like, which one is X? What kind of rubbish is that? And I think for Beyoncé and Jay ZI, mean Beyoncé and Jay-Z, like they name one of their child, the children Blue, I'll be Blue Ivy or something. Like you guys just pick some random names, you know, from like from where? But only in Nigeria, you know,

interesting names, but at least the name didn't make sense. All right, so straight to the topic for today, how to reach out to people on WhatsApp. You find somebody interesting, you want to talk to the person or you hope you want to do some business with the person. And let's say in the past what you've been doing is you just send a message. Hey, you just send a message. Good morning. You just send a message. Hello. Or you just send a message.

Is this XYZ like some people who send me a message? Is this tablishing a question mark? And you just leave that as the first message and you're wondering why people are not responding to your message and then you will now tell someone like me that I tried prospecting using WhatsApp, I tried reaching out to people via SMS, but it doesn't work. People doesn't people don't respond to messages. That is the reason why people are not responding to your messages because if you've been using this approach.

Hi, good morning. Hello. Is this Tavishma question mark? It is inadequate because when you are reaching out to people and they don't know who the F you are and the message just comes in high, it doesn't solve the problem because as a Nigerian guy or girl, you're just minding your business. You're playing Candy Crush on your phone or you're trying to play chess on your phone like I play chess. Although you should be working because right now it's 1154 in the day.

So if you're playing Candy Crush or if you're playing chess, that is a 0 for you. You better, you know, hop on the phone, make some calls or drive to a customer's office or get on the keyboard, you know, do something chef, go and do some work. So, so you're just person just there with their phone. A strange number comes in like that. It doesn't solve the main problem. The main problem for the Nigerian person who is holding their phone right now is who it is.

Who is this person? Why are you hitting up my phone? Why are you bothering me? So when we are reaching out to people over WhatsApp, in fact, even for people who self that we even have their phone number, it's not a good idea to just send hi. I mean, except if you're sending a message to Momsy or Popsy. If Popsy sees hi on his phone, he will smile and say my daughter has remembered me this morning. And then he replied this one that my darling daughter has remembered me this morning.

I hope all is well because he knows that you're about to beat him, you know. But at least with Popsy there's a good way to start the conversation. With moms, he is a good way to start the conversation but if you are me, you know we're friends you know we're all once in a while and you just send me a message. Hi I'll still be wondering OK, this one that Ching is sending me a message. Hi Like hi over what? Or Kunle just sends me a message.

Hi and I'm wondering OK Kunle, you Remember Me today. Why is he sending this message doesn't solve the problem as people want to know who are you or why are you in my inbox this morning? So it's a simple conversational framework that goes like this. And I've talked about it on the podcast several times. But for those of you who are newbies listening, this is how it goes. Greeting, intention, question, proposal, and then close.

Let's go about the framework again. First of all, you give an appropriate greeting. Now, when I say appropriate greeting, appropriate means relative to the person, the context, your relationship, you know, things like that because there are some people that the only appropriate greeting is good morning, Sir. There's some other people that are appropriate greeting is guy. How far? There's some other people that the appropriate greeting is a mummy of life and destiny.

Your boys are loyal. So it depends on the context. So I'm not one of those people who's going to say that your greeting must always be this way or always be that way. It depends. So it has to be appropriate according to the context, according to what the person respects so expects, according to your relationship. So it depends. Because it's perfectly fine that you work in the financial services industry and maybe you sell insurance.

It is perfectly fine that you greeting somebody can be a mommy of life and destiny. Your boys are loyal. That can be an appropriate greeting even though you sell insurance, provided you aren't a woman. You guys feel like that. I'm assuming maybe she's old enough to be like your mom. See, but maybe she's a very blunt and direct person that you guys have been having that kind of conversation. Yeah, in that case, that would be an appropriate greeting.

Are you meeting her the first time? The appropriate greeting might be good morning, Ma, or sending her an e-mail. Appropriate greeting might be Good morning, Madam. You know XYZ, so appropriate greeting. The next is intention. You always need to let people know what's up. Why are you making this phone call? Why did you come to their office? Why did you send them an SMS? Why did you send them an e-mail? And when we start doing virtual reality and all whatnot, you know, with the like, Apple headset and all that, you also need to let the person know why are you trying to enter into my virtual space?

I'm here chilling in virtual space and I'm trying to watch, you know, Sonic the head, Sonic the Hedgehog Part 5 or whatever. So why are you trying to disturb my cinema experience? So you need to let the person know the intention. Then the next stage is questions. The reason why a question is there is because usually whenever we're trying to hit somebody up, we have a place that we're going to. There's something we want to ask them, there's a proposal that we want to make.

You cannot make an appropriate proposal, relevant proposal until you ask a few questions and you figure out where this person is coming from. In that case, you can make a proposal that makes sense to both of you and then close is just you try and get them to take the next step. So that's the summary of a simple conversational framework. And we'll just use 2 examples now so that you can see how this thing applies in SMS.

Again, the framework is simple. It's greeting, intention, question, proposal, and then close. So let me use 2 examples now because one person hit me up, you just say good morning, she just left it like that. The other person hit me up, you just said hi. And she she just left it like that. Oh, by the way, it's just a coincidence that both people are women. Just a coincidence. I'm not saying this is a woman thing. So please nobody crucify me.

So the first person good morning now because you know, I'm a sales professional. I understand how people are. So me, I move the conversation along, but if you're talking with an ordinary person who is not in business, like my wife for instance, or my mom or my mother-in-law or my father-in-law, you just say hi. What do you think the response will be? My wife will just ignore, my mother-in-law will ignore, my mother will ignore, my father-in-law will look and my father-in-law will also reply hi and leave it like that.

The ball is now back in your court. You shall have to move the conversation forward. So just saying hi or just saying good morning, that's not a good idea. So I moved the conversation along. And so I now know the reason why they are sending a message. So this is what they should have done instead. So the lady that just sent the message good morning, she said I sent a message saying good morning Tavishima, concerning our yesterday's meeting.

Apologies that I couldn't make it. Ma'am, you send it as a message. So I see the message, you know, and immediately I now know what the context is about and I can continue the conversation accordingly. Then from there, from that small introduction, Good morning Tavishma, concerning our meeting yesterday, apologies that I couldn't make it. Then the greeting and the intention that's in there. The question would be, are you still interested in continuing the conversation or would you like to, would you like for us to try having a meeting again?

That's the question. The proposal as the conversation as you guys are thinking back and forth, the proposal would now be, would you be available next week Wednesday? Unless they have, I say yes, then the close would be, oh, thank you very much. I'll schedule that in the calendar. I will ping you a reminder on Tuesday evening. Will that be OK? Question mark? And to which I would respond and say yes. And then that's it.

So you can see now you have had a very productive SMS exchange, WhatsApp exchange, Telegram exchange, e-mail exchange, whatever exchange by just following this format instead of just saying good morning. And then you keep quiet. I'm the one that's now asking you like alpha, I didn't see you during the meeting yesterday because by the way, that's rude. You guys schedule a meeting. You don't show up for the meeting. You don't say anything.

You now send the guy a text message just saying good morning. You leave it like that. It is now me, the slighted party. You didn't show up for the meeting that is now asking you like alpha, why? Why didn't you show? It's it's somehow so that should be that should have been the approach. Good morning concerning yesterday's meeting. My apologies, you know, blah blah blah. Excuse excuse, excuse. Would you be available next week Wednesday?

OK, cool, reconfirm. I'll send you the zoom link and I'll ping you a reminder on on Tuesday then end. Fruitful. Now the next lady that sent me a message, she just sent a message. Hi. So like I said, because I'm in sales, I know what's up, I know where she's heading. I try and move the conversation along, but this is how she should have done it. She should have done it this way. By the way, lady that sent me this message was a strange number, but because I was kind of expecting that she would hit me up anyway, I kind of was expecting because I had spoken to some other guy about this whole thing.

So when I saw it, you know, I was not surprised. I just checked country code like, oh, OK, OK. I see this is babe that guy was talking about. So this is how I should have been, should have been. Hi, OK. Chuku said you are interested in crypto question mark or you're interested in crypto. Is that correct or whatever? Something like that. That simple introduction will do two things #1 there's an appropriate greeting there.

Then #2 it has stated the intention #3 you have looked in a common friend or a common acquaintance that both of you had. You know, if it's a referral, you must always loop in, always mention the referral. So like I tell people this, but people just don't seem to get it. Like you collect the phone number for Madam Constance and you get the phone number from Odogu Benjamin and then you just show up at Madam Constance House and then you start having the conversation.

You know? No, when you show up at Madam Constance house, you say, oh, thank you very much man, for, for meeting blah, blah, blah. I got your number from Odogu Benjamin. And you say, Oh, Benjamin, my long lost friend, how is he now? Sure, he's fine. Oh, blah, blah, blah. How do you even know Benjamin itself? You know, you've already started off with rapport, some commonality. So I don't know why some people don't do that.

Somebody refers you always drop the person's name. So in this case, instead of just saying hi question mark, I'm leaving it like that because honestly, it was my wife. My wife just says hi. My wife will assume this person scammer. My wife will block my mother-in-law will just ignore my own mother will just block my own father-in-law. He can be mischievous, so he might decide to engage. This one is a scammer, Abby. He might decide to engage to continue winding up the person,

just follow the person and be playing in the conversation. But you can see that either way, the responses are not good. The more effective way is greeting intention. So in this case, hi, Okuchuku said you're interested in crypto, is that correct? Okuchuku said you would love to know more about crypto. Oh, sorry. In this case, I think you better put the person's son in as well because you know, we're Nigerians now. So Okuchuku, you know them plenty.

There's many Okuchuku. So in this case, hello, I was talking to Okajuku one or so last Tuesday and he said you're interested in learning more about crypto question mark. So in that case, you see now the conversation will just be flowing, be flowing, be flowing because the person you sent the message to, which is me in this case, I opened the phone and two questions I answered, who is this? Why is the person hitting up my phone?

What's the connection between me and that person? So that'll be the perfect opener. Now, of course, as the texting back and forth continues, you the questions would be, let me see. I think would make sense to ask, you know, how much the person knows about crypto, whether they're familiar with crypto, why they're even thinking of investing in crypto, all those sorts of conversations. And then you now round it up with, oh, sorry about that.

A call is coming through. Funny enough is the lady who sent me the first message, She's the one who is now calling. OK, after I cut this thing now, now answer her. Oh, by the way, you see what I've been saying that you know, it's best to do a phone call if you're just saying hi and the person ignores, you know, then what? You know, you have to find ways of pushing out the conversation yourself anyway. So actually what she should have done, which is what she's doing now, is actually to have called and have this conversation instead of trying to ping when you're able to make a meeting.

That's what I was saying. OK, so I ran over a couple of ideas about what kind of questions you know you would ask the person in the picking message. What do you know about crypto? Why are you interested in investing in crypto? What kind of returns are you looking for? Then the proposal in this case would be are you open for a phone call or can I come back to your office or blah blah blah to talk some more or to look at specific proposals That will be the proposal and let's say the person is truly interested.

The person says yes, and then OK, yeah, you've proposed the day now, Friday, December 25th or whatever, and then it'll also be OK. Thank you very much. I'll ping you a reminder on Thursday evening just to confirm that we're still on course. Would that be OK? The person will say yes, and then that's it, conversation over. And that is the simple framework about how you should be conducting your conversations, whether it's SMS or e-mail or in person.

You show up or you ping with an appropriate greeting. Next, state your intention. People want to know why are you here? Why are you disturbing me? Then ask a couple of questions. The answers will give you all the information that you need to make an effective proposal. Sorry, to make a relevant proposal that would be good for both of you and then try and get the person to take action on the next step, which is the close.

So if you do that, you'll be fine. So for those of you who have been trying to start conversation by just sending message, hi, you just send message. Good morning. You're just ping somebody. Hello, I'm just sending message is establishing my you did question mark. That is not the most effective way to start off the conversation. So if you send a message is establishing my ID. I discovered you on so so so and so and I'm reaching out because I want us to do ABC and XYZ,

that kind of text message somebody will see and he answers the main questions. Who is this? Why are you hitting my phone? What is our relationship? The person will now know whether OK let me engage or let me weave this one. So yeah, that's it. So remember if you'd love to connect with me and explore opportunities, the phone number, the WhatsApp number is 08064662140. The country code is +234. Again, for those of you who are not Nigerian, then you can also connect with me on on LinkedIn,

on social media. Also, I got distracted, one of my neighbor's car broke down and the idiot is trying to tow the car with a Kia. I wonder how this is going to work. I've never seen somebody use a Kia with rope trying. Oh, OK, it seems to be working. Interesting. So ladies and gentlemen, now we know that the Kia is a very strong car. Even though it's tiny and it looks like a computer mouse, apparently it is strong enough to pull another car.

So. You're looking for a new car to buy, I guess you can go and buy a Kia. So yeah, that's it. I'll catch you guys tomorrow.