Turn Every Contact into a Prospect: Actionable Tips for Daily Lead Generation

Hello and welcome to the show today. I don't have a question to tackle per SE, but I'm currently going through something right now and it's giving me a thought about how a lot of people could be doing better in their businesses, but they aren't doing so. And some of the reasons why their business isn't going isn't moving forward as planned. It's not because of macroeconomic factors, but rather it's because of things that are be that are within their control.

For those of you who've been listening to the podcast for a while, you know that I've currently been battling with Napa or rather the PhD And as they're called now because first of all, our Transformer was vandalized and then later on, well, currently now there's been an explosion at the Transformer. So for those of you who've been loyal listeners, you know how, you know, when we go through these episodes, I'm usually running around running up and down trying to organise things because for better, for worse,

you know, I'm one of the more younger people in their state. And you know, all the other fogies are all old and retired. And you know, I have kids with me, so I have a young family. So I guess I'm more impacted by these sorts of things. But I've noticed one thing in having to run around and deal with these sorts of things. In trying to sort out transformer issues, you know, after explosions or vandalizations or whenever power infrastructure fails, I'm having to deal with lots of engineers who either work with the PHC and or who sells stuff or who have their own private con, what's it called?

Contracting service. I'm having to deal a lot with these people, but from the last incident which happened maybe two months ago up until now, I've noticed that now that the transformer has gone kaput again and I'm having to call around surprisingly, now that I'm calling round all these engineers and everybody, it's like I'm having to reintroduce myself all over again now. The economic climb in Nigeria is very harsh. Granted, yes, energy prices have tripled.

Electricity tariffs are going to go up, cost of raw materials are going up. So yes, I understand that lots of people are going to find it difficult to run their businesses. But let's look at this crop of people that I've been speaking to which are engineers and private contractors. So if I have worked with these people in the past and they have done, I mean from the let's look at things from their own point of view. If they have done business or provided a service to somebody else in the path.

So in the past, then the normal thing that they ought to do, the normal thing that a business person ought to do, is you need to approach a lot of your business activities as avenues for lead generation. Now remember, in previous episodes I've described a lead as someone who might have taken an action in the past or might have done something to show that they might be interested in your product or services. Now, if someone has hit you up in the past because they they had transformer issues and they needed your services as a private contractor, as an engineer to solve the problem,

then don't you think that person should go into your phone book or your diary or your file as a lead for the future or as a prospect for relationship nurturing? Because this is Nigeria, the state of infrastructure is unstable. So the chances are if somebody reaches out to you because they need infrastructure support for power or for plumbing or carpentry or whatever, chances are the person might need your number again.

Or the person might be able to refer you to other people who might need your services. So these private contractors and engineers, their businesses could be doing a whole lot more if they just approach their everyday way of building business as a means for lead generation. So in fact, if these people were being what's the word, industrious in building their businesses when they came to come and fix the transformer the first time around?

You shouldn't just have been my contact details that were collected, but perhaps contact details of other estate members as well. Especially since some members of the estate are currently doing projects like erecting houses that might need electrical fitting and then things like that. So they should have looked at how to conduct their everyday business as a as a means for gathering leads and for relationship building.

Because I think it's appalling that in 2024 we have Nigerian business people or people who are suffering and who want to increase their level of sustenance and their level of income. That you can't even do the most basic thing, which is somebody calls you because they need your service and at the end of the service you don't even store the person's phone number. How will you reach out to the person in the future to say, I

hope we were able to solve the problem satisfactory? If you have no problems, do you have another person that you can refer me to so that we can rewire the house or so we can solve this infrastructure problem, or so that we can solve this building challenge or that power challenge or this plumping challenge? I mean, this is 2024. We all have mobile phones. The mobile phones are capable of storing thousands of phone numbers.

This is not like back in the day. You know, back when some of us were in uni and MTN just rolled out and back then you can only store phone numbers on a scene and on the same you could only store 200 digits. Now I don't even know how many you can store, especially now that you can hook up your Google account and in theory, I don't know, you could go maybe. My guess is maybe you can do 4567, maybe even 8000 phone numbers.

It's not going to cost you anything to just use your smartphone. I mean after all it's called a smartphone. The smart thing to do is to save the number of people you've done business with in the past and try to get prospective leads to talk to in the future. Now, a lot of you listening to the podcast these this is just one of the basic reasons why your business is not making as much progress as it should. You've done business with someone in the past.

You didn't think it was a good idea to store that person's phone number or to call the person back to be sure that they enjoyed your product or service, or to find out if they could refer you to someone else. If you are a private contractor, a business person, a self-employed person, or even if you're employed but looking for avenues of extra income, it's an indictment on you that somebody has done business with you in the past, the person calls you up now and you have absolutely no idea who that person is.

It's an indictment on you and not the president. If you're one of those people who believes that the president has ruined the economy, I'm not saying one way or the other. I'm just saying it's an indictment on you, not the economy, not the president, not the Village People for stalling your business. It's an indictment on you. This is one of the reasons why I started. I started the podcast back in the Good luck Jonathan era.

You know, just before COVID was because some of these things should be common sense. But for some reason it is not common sense. And lots of people don't realize that these are the simple things that you can do to grow your business. You've done business with someone. Save the person's phone number. Call the person once in a while. Be sure that the problem hasn't reoccurred. If the problem has reoccurred, good, you might be able to make a sale.

If the problem has not reoccurred, good, you might be able to get a referral. Because let's face it, you're a contractor in the power space in Nigeria. I mean, think about it, who does not need support for wiring houses or for buying cables or for buying a generator or for. So I mean, let's let's face it, I live in Abuja, There are development projects going up all over the place and I'm sure for those of you in Lagos and some parts of the East, it's the same as well.

Anyway, sorry about this rant, but bottom line is, if you're ever in that situation where somebody calls you and the person says this is so and so and you respond, who? And the person says this is so and so Now you did this for me, this for me, this for me. And your response is after you finish that phone call, if you end up doing business again, what you need to do is to get on your knees. You need to ask God for forgiveness because you've not been sharp in growing your business.

Because after all, every day we, Nigerian Christians especially, we say, God bless the work of our hands, We need to use our hands diligently and we need to use our mobile phones diligently. So next time somebody calls, you don't know who the person is, but the person insists. You guys have done some work together. It's an indictment on you. Store that person's phone number. Create something in your phone, your diary, your post it note or whatever.

Or tell your wife to remind you in the future or your husband to remind you in the future that this is a potential lead that I should be following up with at some point. Pick a cadence, whether it's one month or two weeks or six months or whatever. Lead gathering, really important. Relationship nurturing, relationship building, really, really, really important. So that's the reason why I've gotten on the microphone today to make today's round.

At the next podcast episode I am going to be sharing my ideas on navigating growth for start-ups in Nigeria. Now the reason why I'm going to be tackling that is because there was a Huawei Startup Summit recently, that's this year, 2024. And who are we? That's the the telephony company. You know, they make mobile phones and stuff like that. I hope I'm pronouncing the name properly. That's Huawei. I've started paying attention to these sorts of companies ever since I got my Joming phone because I have the Joming 12 C

and I think it's a real handy phone. So I've been paying attention to all these Chinese companies anyway, so I didn't speak at that conference that they had navigating growth for startups and scale UPS in Nigeria. But it's a topic that I have some ideas on. So in the next podcast episode I'll be sharing that. But before I leave, another reminder. If you are one of these people, you are a self-employed person or your employee and you're looking for other ways to grow your income.

If someone calls you up, you don't know who that person is, but you don't business with them in the past. It's an entitlement on you. There are lots of things that you can do to improve your income and #1 is to take your everyday business transactions and look at them as methods for lead gathering. So if you are these technical minded sorts of people, someone calls you up for technical specs when you go there and you're done, collect the person's phone number, use your eyes, size the environment.

There might be possible deals, opportunities for these business deals in the making, size the environment, get some more phone numbers, hand out some more business cars, put out more Flyers, you know, whatever. And then relationship building, relationship nurturing, call back two weeks, one month, three months, whatever cadence that you're comfortable with and then find out are you happy, did the problem reoccur? How can I help you fix it?

Do you know anybody else who needs my product or my services? So with just this application of simple common sense, you will find that actually it's very, very possible to increase your business in 2024 by 30, forty, 50%. Just these simple things can improve your business and help your business grow. Regardless of whoever is the president, whether it's AC or PDP or the Democrats or the Republicans, These are the simple things that you can do to improve, improve your lot in society.

Now of course, yeah, elections are important. Vote elections coming up with Americans. So please go ahead vote. I think Nigeria will still have a few ways to go. Is it 2027 or something? But yeah, when the time goes, comes vote. But in the meantime, lead generation, business. Sorry. Relationship building, Relationship culturing. So thank you very much for your time and attention. I'll catch you guys at the next episode.

My name is Tavishi Mahidi. I'm the host of the show. Please connect with me on LinkedIn. You can confirm the spelling of my name and my e-mail address from the link we're listening to this episode. Also, connect with me on WhatsApp. My phone number is 08064662140. The country code is +234. I'd like to hear from you guys, especially if you guys have any questions, comments or things that you disagree with, Hit me up, let me know.

Let's have the discussion, let's flesh it out, Let's help our community grow, and let's help share the knowledge and help grow our businesses. So thanks for your time and attention. I'll catch you all at the next episode.