No matter what business you’re into, selling should be your top priority as it is for other entrepreneurs in the same market as you. A mentor once told me that the market you’re selling to is either buying from you, buying from your competitors or still dormant and it is your job to spend every waking hour trying to capture them. Well, I have spent a few months watching and interacting with Nigerian entrepreneurs from different markets, ran a poll to find out why most customers don’t buy from them and came up with this article to explain the top reasons and recommendations on how to sell more.

Pricing: On the top of our list is pricing and there are 3 reasons the pricing of your products is on top. I’ll explain with a personal story. On a nice Saturday evening, I was on Twitter catching up with news and all that. Scrolling through, I saw an ad for a nice Nigerian-made shoe and I was instantly intrigued. I knew I had to get one, the shoe had a wealthy feel to it, you know, one of those shoes you wear and you feel like a million bucks. Never really bought anything from a social media vendor so I thought I’d try for the first time. I had heard of increasing rate of scams but I really loved this shoe. Opened the tweet hoping I’d see an affordable price and to my surprise, there was nothing except “DM for the price”.

I mean, I had a lot of things on my plate and the last thing I needed was asking for the price for a shoe. Anyway, I’m a sucker for fine things so I obliged and I DM’d and after a tough negotiation, we arrived at ₦18, 000 (~ $50). Convinced I had gotten a good deal, I sent the money to the seller and he said I’d have my order delivered in a week. As promised, the shoe was delivered and I was impressed. I wore it to work, looking all fresh and happy and on my way back home, a co-worker recognized the shoe and we got talking. One thing led to another and he inquired about the cost and when I told him, he said he paid ₦21, 000, the same week I paid for mine. Yeah, you can imagine the disappointment he felt knowing he didn’t get a good deal. He swore never to patronize the brand anymore and I couldn’t blame him, he felt cheated and this leads me to the recommendations.

Don’t ask your clients to DM for the price, it’s a turnoff. I wouldn’t have bothered if I wasn’t interested in getting a new shoe for my first day back at the job. Put the price upfront and know that anybody that shows interest is ready to purchase your product. The attention of most humans is 6 seconds and you’re losing them with the DM thing. The best option is to sell through an -commerce platform where you can upload the prices and have a database.
Have a stable price. There’s no better way to say this and you stand a chance of losing customers as well as incurring real scandals if your buyers feel cheated because you were trying to squeeze a deal.
I can’t tell you how much to sell your product but starting out, you need to make your products affordable, at least for your market.
Customer service: This is as important as pricing and a friend had to learn this the hard way. He sells gadgets online and we met up for breakfast one morning. Filled with regret, he spent the first 3 minutes complaining of how he lost out on a ₦210, 000 deal and when I pressed for more information, I found out he didn’t serve the customer the right way. I won’t go into details but customer service is important and luckily for you, I am organizing a practical training for entrepreneurs and customer service agents and you can benefit from this training for a token of ₦1500. Send a text (Whatsapp or normal text) to 07061554392 for details. Limited slots available.


A quote by Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos. “Customer service should not be a department, It should be the entire company”
Trust Issues: This is something most Nigerian entrepreneurs and customers have a problem with. I recall a lot of times I saw a product I really liked and was willing to pay but because I had heard stories of people getting scammed, I decided it play it safe than sorry. Selling on social media is a good development but selling on social media alone is bad for your business and I’ll list the problem as well as recommend a lasting and affordable solution.

Very often, there is always the problem of who’ll commit first. Pay on delivery or pay before delivery. I have been in this situation a couple of times myself and after a lot of deliberation and complains, I decided to start emall.ng, an e-commerce platform that supports peer-to-peer sales of all kinds of products. We secure all transactions through our escrow service, we also help you extend your reach and increase sales by spending on paid promotions. Also, we offer marketing tips from experts and all of these for a 5% commission rate which is negotiable. There is no losing when you sell through emall.ng. Sign up now through www.emall.ng/user-signup and upload through www.emall.ng/upload-product. Also, with your own dashboard and other amazing features, you get total control of your account.

Bonus Tip: You need to turn your business into a brand. The difference between Gucci and other businesses in the apparel industry is that one is a brand while others are businesses. Good news, emall.ng can help with that.