₦airaland Forum

It’s easy to try to speak to everyone when trying to get a business going. After all you have no idea who your ideal customer might be right?

It’s something I struggled with early in my content journey.

It took a while to see that trying to appeal to everyone was going to get me nowhere with no one in particular.

When I got comfortable with talking about sales and ONLY SALES, it was then I started making progress with a small cohort who are interested in listening to what I have to say.

They come for the sales talk and nothing else.

I’m under no pressure to create any other kind of content and I’m free from trying to be polished and popular.

It’s the same for content as with business in general.

If you try resonating with everyone, you resonate with no one in particular.

Take a guess in the dark as to who your target audience might be and go after them. Don’t try to appeal to the whole world.

If you guess wrong, take the feedback from this failed attempt and try again.

That’s the beauty of the discipline of sales. Nothing really is a failure so long as you can take market feedback and carry it over to your next campaign.

With each salvo you’ll get closer to the bulls eye.

I think a lot of business owners have accepted that in today’s climate, most of us have to produce online content.

We do this to remain top of mind with clients, and to seek out potential customers.

If we don’t do this, our social media assets and online accounts would be boring and irrelevant.

The only thing we would put up would be company and product news, features, and updates. This would not be inspiring for our potential customers to interact and engage with.

Unfortunately lots of people assume that to produce great content online, it has to have high production value.

What does high production value mean?

It means that the content produced is glossy, well executed, and very professional.

When it comes to traditional media, the goal ACTUALLY should be for your content to have high production value.

It would be a shame to put out an advertisement over the TV that was not well produced, not well written, or scripted.

It would also be a shame to put out bad material over the radio that had poor voice talent and acting.

In both cases it wold also be bad if both didn’t have well thought out points or “calls to action” in the material.

A call to action is the “next step” we want our clients to take whenever we put out content.

When producing content for social media or new media, the landscape is more forgiving.

Because of that, things don’t have to be executed with such high professional flourish and precision... especially in situations where the business owner, or members of the staff are going to be engaging with the audience routinely.

Let’s assume a customer has an inquiry about an order and he sends you guys a direct message over on Instagram.

It would be OK that a member of staff responds with a video that was helpful and relevant, even if that video wasn’t shot with the latest iPhone or the greatest camera.

The customer also would not be bothered if the aspect ratio of the video was off, or if the video was framed or composed wrongly.

So content is important but not all of us have to prioritize delivering it in the same way.

So when it comes to producing content, what should we be aiming for?

Our first priority should be that the message is relevant, helpful, insightful, and should allow the potential customer to enter into deeper relationships with us. Content that helps potential customers in exploring our products or services is cool too!

Secondly, we should be worried about reducing “friction” in the content creation process.

Because creating content can be a very hard thing to do, sometimes insisting on high production value is something that can make the job even harder.

If the job of producing content gets hard enough, most of us won’t bother to continue with writing blog posts, recording podcasts, uploading photos to instagram, or hooking up videos on TikTok, reels, or YouTube.

High production value is expensive in time and effort. That is the friction most of us will have to face in producing or curating content for our social media handles.

Curation is when you don’t product the content yourself, but you find interesting things other people have created that you can share to engage your audience.

If you want high production value, you have to take the time out to do everything yourself to a very high standard, or you have to pay professionals to give the polish to your written, or visual content.

In other words, high production value or “friction” means either hours of your time, or hiring professional photographers, videographers, graphic designers, and other kinds of visual artists.

That might also mean even professional editors or staff writers... or for regular folks like us, hiring social media managers, or content production services.

If you focus on reducing the amount of friction to creating good content, then you’re going to be able to put out content much more easily and predictably over time.

When you start producing content for your business, the focus should be on being consistent and really helpful to your audience.

We can worry about high production value later.

This is especially true when we have the resources to hire the production team that will go behind making such super, high polished, and glossy content.

For now in the early days, it’s more important to show up consistently even if your content is “average” but helpful.

You will get more mileage with your business if you do this rather than producing “professional” content that you release 2 or 3 times a year.

It’s easy to fall into the habit of waking up, thinking about stuff, grinding, and then doing the whole thing all over again the next day.

While there’s nothing wrong to this cadence, most of fail to see how talking to the customer routinely is good not just for breaking things up, but also for the intel we can get to drive our grinding, hustling and thinking.

You should be talking to your customers and clients all the time, or as often as possible.

This will improve your sales processes, sales results and marketing communications.

When you talk to your customers all the time, you start getting a fair sense of what they like, what was effective, what happened poorly, and what could’ve been done better.

When you have all this information on hand you now now know what to do, and most importantly, what to avoid or to cut out.

When this become a regular part of the feedback cycle for your business, there’s no other way for you to go but up.

There’s no conceivable way that this isn’t a good practice for your business.

So pick up the phone and call your customers, even if they aren’t buying anything today.

There are people who insist we have to be logical when it comes to sales and marketing.

There are also others who say it’ll be more effective to go emotional with your messaging and approach.

The concerns of the logical camp are justified. There’s too much of a history of sharply dressed and attractive people going out and tricking people into sales with emotional appeals and gimmicks.

The business world is full of tales of woe and regret when sales people, marketers and business people overall have used appeals to greed, euphoria and other emotions.

This is the backdrop of many horror stories where thing have gone sour and the customer ends up with either buyer’s remorse, or buyer’s regret.

While it makes sense in some kinds of business contexts to overweigh the logical and downplay the emotional, we have to admit that there are other contexts where emotions have been the key driver for the customer’s purchase.

Most of us didn’t buy the diaper or food brand we use for the children because we used a logical spreadsheet to compare the pros and cons of one diaper over another.

Most brides don’t select a wedding photographer or a florist by using advatages and disadvanteges during the consultation process.

So should we be selling using emotion or logic?

Actually both are necessary because we are human with emotional and logical capacities and capabilities.

In fact in traditional sales circles we affirm that most people buy with emotion and justify the purchase with logic.

This is because emotion drives behavior in all aspects of human life.

What about people who are self professed to be entirely logical beings?

Logical people are just more EMOTIONALLY tied to the idea of being dispassionate and logical.

So just as with other areas of life, when it comes to sales, most of the times it’s not “either or”, it’s “both and”.

It’s not EITHER emotion or logic in the sales process, it’s both logic AND emotions in the sales process.

We should be looking for ways to engage both the minds and brains of our potential customers.

Part of the art of prospecting is looking out for people who could be a good match for your product or service.

Prospecting is the regular practice of looking for new people to talk to who you could reasonably do business with you in the future.

Unfortunately it’s not always a “one to one” match when it comes to looking for who could receive benefits from your product or service.

For instance, a makeup artist sent me a message not long ago...

“Good morning. I was wondering if you need a makeup artist for your studio? I just want to know”

This is actually better than the usual message I’d receive which would be something like...

“Good morning Madam. Ojukwo Glam Makeup Artists are the best in the Abuja metropolitan area. For your most sophisticated and upscale styling session, contact us today on 080XXXXXX for a 50% discount. You won’t be disappointed that you did. Thank you very much in advance Ma.”

Why is the first message better? Because it was targeted and the person did some research beforehand.

The second message is a “broadcast message” that got into my inbox assuming I’m a woman who regularly uses makeup.

The second person did some research and discovered I was a male wedding photographer, and it’s reasonable to assume that I had a studio that would need styling support services for my clients.

The first step in prospecting is making sure the message or approach is well targeted and you know who the potential audience is.

The next step is being ready to enter into a conversation before you go into your “sales pitch.”

A conversation is necessary because it gives you the opportunity to find out some more about the potential customer, what their needs are, and how you can possibly help.

It is only when you have this information that you can confidently say...

“Hey are you in the market for XYZ? My product can help you alleviate ABC for 50% of the price. Would you be interested in that?”

Until you have all the information, you are just spraying messages out to the whole world and hoping to be lucky when it lands on someone who might have need for your product or service.

So what should “Makeup Artist A” have done?

Since she reached out on Instagram, the first message should’ve been something like...

“Hi Mr XYZ I think your photos are wonderful!”

After my response she could’ve followed up with...

“I’d love to be associated with artists like you, is that something you’d be willing to explore?”

If I responded with anything similar to a NO, then you now know to look elsewhere.

Anything close to a YES and more questions could have followed...

“Do you have a studio in ABJ?”
“Have you been in partnership with a makeup artist before? Why did the last partnership end?”
“Who are the kinds of customers you serve?”

These are the kinds of questions that will allow you to enter into a partnership where you get 10% for every customer you give the photographer, or maybe come up with a package where your services are thrown in with his basic pre wedding shoot package.

Both of you can only explore these kinds of proposals because you have a fair sense of who you are, where you’re coming from, and where you’re heading to.

Any proposal before this point is premature and is the product of guessing.

Why do all these things matter?

Because it is better to send 30 well thought out messages which results in 10 conversations and you enter into business deals with 5 people.

The alternative is to send 1,000 messages today, get ignored by 800, get blocked by another 100 (especially if you send these types of messages every year), only get 1 response, and you up doing no business deals with anyone.

The worst part about the second scenario is that eventually you’re going to get habitually ignored or blocked by most people on your contact list except for family members and school buddies.

So it’s not bad to reach out and say, “hey I was wondering if you need a makeup artist for your studio,” but maybe you should aim to have a conversation where you can explore different scenarios.

How did this actual conversation end?

I responded by saying, “no thanks I shut down my studio a long time ago” ...to which she responded “okay thanks.”

Don’t blame her, without an open conversation this is the only way most of these conversations will end.

Actually we should praise her because she sent out the message after all. Have you?

Too many people worry about the title that they’ll have when the start up a business.

There’s too much angst and time spent over whether you should be the Chief Executive Officer, Chief Everything Officer, Founder, Customer Experience Officer, Proprietor, Chief Visionary Officer and what have you.

It’s not of primary importance what you call yourself in the early days so long as you’re paying attention to the key business functions that have to be fulfilled.

And what matters especially in the early days is the recognition that nothing happens in the business unless a sale is made.

If you don’t have customers, there’s nothing to be a CEO over.

If there are no customer orders and nothing to fulfill, then what are you being a Chief Visionary Officer over?

In the early days your primary responsibility is making sales, or hiring the person who can bring in the sales for you.

It is only after you have sorted out the initial issues around traction that you can now be occupied about what your official titles should be.

I’m not saying that you should ignore organizational charts and good business management principles and practices, but rather focus on gaining traction and getting sales which is the lifeblood of the business.

Once we have a healthy business going then we can come up with all the titles that we want, because we have validated the business idea and we know for a fact that we have a going concern.

Some folks come up with REALLY creative ways to get people following their content and biulding a tribe or community online.

The goal of community or tribe biulding is to eventually monetize some sort of information product, or other products or services that you have.

What this means in effect is that eventually you want people who follow your content to buy something from you in the future.

One of such examples of community biulding I saw online went like this...

A certain guy tweeted out:

“My son swears that watching his YouTube videos will make other kids smarter. Please subscribe to his channel so that I can hear word at home.”

For the non Nigerian audience, the expression “to hear word....” should be translated as “so that I can have peace at home”.

So in other words the message was “my son’s YouTube videos will make your kids smarter. Please subscribe to his channel so that he can stop pestering me at home.”

The ploy seemed to work because a bunch of people commented below that they had followed.

One of the new subscribers was a woman in her tweens who doesn’t have kids. A few other adults followed in support and to boost the young man’s morale.

So the mission was accomplished successfully!

Or was it?

Is this the right way to get people following your content and biulding your online community?

From a sales perspective, the most effective way to get people to do something is to figure out their needs and motives and then see how your product or service aligns with that motive.

That alignment is going to become your “sales pitch”.

That’s the reason why “pure water” sellers hang out around motor parks and they don’t come to your swanky office.

They know that in your air-conditioned office, you guys aren’t thirsty because you’re cool and you have water dispensers. You guys don’t have the “thirst” motive and you aren’t dehydrated.

They go to the motor parks because there are travelers who have gone an hour or more in uncomfortable, cramped, hot and sweaty cars and they most likely will be thirsty, or maybe they just want to wash their hands? Either way, commuters always need water for one reason or another.

The pure water seller is trying to align herself with people’s motives.

She isn’t trying to go and convince everyone else that they SHOULD be thirsty, or that they SHOULD need water now.

What does this have to do with your son’s YouTube channel?

If your son’s channel is aimed at getting other KIDS smarter, then shouldn’t you be looking for kids who want to get smarter?

Does it help if you get a bunch of adults to subscribe to your kids channel which is aimed at kids? Maybe!

When all these adults sign up but don’t engage with the content (because it’s irrelevant to them), don’t you think it might HURT the channel because the algorithm will judge the channel to be ineffective and irrelevant?

That is what happens when people subscribe, but don’t end up liking or commenting a bunch on the videos.

That is what will happen when tons of adults subscribe to a YouTube channel aimed at kids.

When the YouTube algorithm makes this kind of assessment, it’s likely not promoting it to other people.

How about tweeting out instead:

“Hey parents! Would you like your kids to become smarter during the long vacations? Please subscribe them to my son’s YouTube channel which explores topics on XYZ guaranteed to make them smarter! If nothing else, support my son because you’re my friend!”

This might be the right call to action which is 1. Getting parents to subscribe their kids, instead of 2. Getting the parents to subscribe themselves.

Also, people take action, buy, like, or subscribe because of THEIR reasons and not because of YOURS.

Getting people to subscribe to something for your peace of mind might not be an effective clarion call.

Instead of saying “please subscribe so that my son stops nagging me”, how about saying “please show your support for the leaders of tomorrow by....” or “if you call yourself my true friends, then please support by....”

Because this isn’t a going concern or a business per se, we shouldn’t take this whole scenario too seriously.

But eventually we mummies and daddies decide to start a business or build a community to sell something of our own. When that time comes, these are the principles to follow.

Make sure you are targeting the right people and delivering relevant information to them.

Make sure you deliver effective calls to action that make sense to the people you’re targeting.

Realize that people only do something for their own benefit... so stop asking people to do something for YOUR own benefit.

If you notice, the pure water seller shouts “ice cold water!”

He does this so that YOU see a clear benefit for YOU... in this scorching heat. This is refreshing water to quench YOUR thirst.

The pure water seller doesn’t shout “help me pay my children’s school fees!”

Which ever messaging he goes with, both are true, but only one will be effective over the long term.

By the way, a call to action is that thing you ask a potential customer or audience to do after consuming your content.

Why is having a call to action important?

Because if after watching your videos, you don’t tell them to do something else, they might do nothing at all!

The Harvard Business Review in a heading titled “The leader as coach” proudly proclaimed that “coaching is about asking and listening, not telling and selling”.

The second quote was part of some text used to promote the online article.

While there’s an element of truth to the proclamation, it does betray a fundamental misunderstanding about what selling is.

Yes I know that the post is about coaching and not selling... but the header seems to imply that “selling is telling” or that they’re close correlates.

Selling can be really unnerving because of the amount of personal rejection involved.

Because of that, the average person assumes that with the “perfect script”, you’d be able to move a lot of goods and services and have a lot less people say NO to you often.

That’s why the average academic assumes that selling is telling... because they have seen people in the search for a “perfect script” show up and try to bamboozle customers with the perfect polished sales pitch.

The truth is actually farther from this and carries a little more nuance.

The seasoned sales professional knows that you can’t “persuade” or “convince” anyone to to anything.

Because of that sophisticated sales professionals aren’t worried about what to TELL you that will make you act, but they’re concerned with figuring out your motivations and aligning with them so that you can act of your own accord.

Selling isn’t about telling people something. It’s about figuring out who is the best candidate for a business relationship, and then making a proposal.

So just like with making a proposal in personal relationships, there will be some scripting and performance involved... after-all we have to get down on one knee and use the basic universal formula to pop the question.

So it is with sales... at the point of asking for the business relationship, we might use the same phrases.

When it comes to transitioning clients through stages in the interaction we might use the same motions, but the BRUNT of sales is not figuring out WHAT TO SAY, but figuring out the right QUESTIONS TO ASK.

This is because the seasoned sales professional knows that there’s no point trying to convince someone who is a wrong fit, has no need for you, and can’t afford you anyway.

Because of this, most of the time won’t be spent TELLING the potential customer anything.

The time will be spent asking questions to figure out WHO this person is, WHAT problems they’re trying to fix, WHICH vision they’re aiming for in their personal life or business, WHAT things they’ve tried out in the past that didn’t work, HOW they’re currently stuck and what the setbacks are.

There also will be a few questions around what they can do to take the next step in solving their problems or achieving their vision.

Until we get past this point, there isn’t any TELLING involved.

All this sounds a lot like coaching doesn’t it?

That’s because sales and coaching have a lot more in common than the average person or academic thinks!

Don’t think you know about what selling is because of the bad examples you’ve seen.

Ask the true professional and be illuminated on the beauty of the art of selling and the service of helping people.

Because selling isn’t a certified profession like Law and Medicine, you’re going to find more charlatans and shoddy practicians that elegant professionals.

But don’t let that fool you into thinking that sales is something undesirable.

Coaching is about asking and listening, not telling! And we agree with the Harvard Business Review on that.

Selling is also about asking and listening, not telling... because the coach and sales professionals are in business to help people figure out what the problem is and what to do next.

Sales people and coaches would both be ineffective and make poor recommendations if either tried to do their jobs otherwise.

When socializing and networking, it helps to have useful questioning frameworks to get the conversation rolling.

Why is it necessary to have a question led framework? Because no one is interested in listening to YOUR favorite topic which is talking about yourself.

Come up with a simple list of questions to ask the other person to get THEM talking about THEIR favorite topic which is THEMSELVES.

When other people are emotionally invested in the conversation because you’ve let them talk freely, not only will they think you are a brilliant conversationalist, this will also give you all the information to figure out if this person is worth biulding a relationship with after the event.

Isn’t that the point of networking and socializing? To figure out who could be an asset to you and who is worth biulding a relationship with in the future?

Asking the other person questions will get you to that point quicker than talking about yourself all evening.

Another benefit of asking questions?

When you’re worried about what you should say, networking and socializing is going to be nerve wracking.

Let’s face it, the average person can’t come up with enough conversation topics for a one hour event where you could meet up to thirty people!

The thought of it is exhausting in itself.

If you have the right questions or conversation primers, networking will be a breeze!

Networking will be easier with a few questions because one question will flow on into another and another as both of you open up areas to mutually explore.

You could start conversations with everyone the same way, and each conversation will flow authentically into something unique and interesting.

For instance, if you choose to start the conversation with the question “so how do you know Khadijah (our host)?” you will get multiple responses from everyone in the room.

From one person you could the answer “we went to the same primary school” and get into interesting conversations about growing up in Portharcourt, and end up with the business or career interests that they have in common.

With another person you could get the answer “I don’t really know her and I’m not sure why I was invited to this room full of lawyers”, and both of you could bond over being the only non lawyers in the room and gossip about how lawyers have failed the Nigerian republic.

Another answer could be “both of us met after UNILAG when we were interns at KPMG” and the conversation can flow around both of your mutual research or business interests.

The same question could get you drastically different and interesting conversations all night long.

I wouldn’t recommend you use the same question though! It could feel bland or emotionally flat to begin each conversation the same way.

The most important thing to remember is this; to get the ball rolling in networking and social events, you don’t have to think of clever things to say all the time.

Come up with a few questions to figure out who is in the room, what they’re interested in, and how your interests align.

That’s enough conversation fuel to last you the whole evening.

How did you manage to count all the paragraphs? Guy you are gangster!

Sometimes people reach out to say hello to you because they’re curious about what you’re up to and which business ideas you’re working on.

What’s the best way to handle these conversations especially since you’re busy and don’t have time for idle chit chat?

Do you just text back with the website link or IG handle of what you’re working on?

It’s really tempting to do that and get on with your life isn’t it? Especially since you know for sure that this friend of yours isn’t buying “shi shi!” ...Nigerian slang for “he ain’t buying nothin!”

When you send over the text message with the link, have you really created awareness about your new product or service? And how do you know for sure that your friend isn’t going to buy?

Even if he or she doesn’t buy from you, how do you know that they can’t give you access to the kinds of customers you’re looking for?

At the very least don’t just send out the web link without no other well thought out course of action.

Make sure you have an “elevator pitch” or some kind of statement which says what the idea is, who it helps, and the things you help them achieve.

Instead of just texting back “busy parents NG on Instagram”, why not try this...

“We’ve set up Busy Parents NG. It’s a daycare centre for parents in Lagos and Abuja who need to drop off children over the weekend. This gives them free time to attend to their side hustles or social engagements in peace knowing that their kids are well looked after.”

PLEASE NOTE I’M NOT RECOMMENDING THIS AS A BUSINESS IDEA! In fact most people think this is a terrible business idea because weekends are PRECISELY the time when parents should be with children.

But this is a hypothetical so let’s assume that there’s a market for this and you’ve gone ahead with all the tech and IP you need for the business.

After this “elevator pitch” text, your friend is going to reply something and that gives you room to slide into another conversation gear...

“Hey would you like to try out the service so that you and Alice can have your weekends stress free?”

“Do you know anyone who could use this service for weekends off?”

You should be asking questions to get feedback on the idea and see if you can get some referrals for the business.

Your friend might never buy, but he or she could know someone who is looking for the exact service or product that you offer.

Even if your friend Kemi comes up blank, continue with this process and eventually your friend or associate Khadijah might know someone and make a referral or introduction.

Don’t shun people until you know for sure that chatting with them is an absolute waste of your time.

If nothing else, this kind of messaging is good practice and will help you with sales and business development down the line.

If you know how to talk effectively about your businesses and ask for orders and referrals, then you should do well over time because everyone in your network will know for sure what you do, and who you’re looking to do business with.

So don’t ignore your nosy friends anymore.

Have an “elevator pitch” ready, and gauge how interested they are in the idea.

If they’re not interested, then ask if they can point you to someone who might have a need for your product or service.

Most of us have had to contemplate this kind of scenario at one time or another.

This is because “troublesome customers” drain time and money that can be devoted to other customers and opportunities that could be bringing in more money.

So if you have the prescence of mind to ask these sort of questions, you are on the right path! ...because you are looking for the best way to optimize your time, effort and attention.

Before we go straight to tackling the question, it would be nice to unwrap a number of assumptions that the question makes.

For one the question assumes that we are in a RELATIONSHIP with our customers.

Is that the case? Do we indeed enter into relationships with people we do business with?

The answer is YES because as business people and business owners we can’t get the maximum value out of a given context unless we can bank on repeat business and referrals from our customers.

To do this we have to maintain some sort of a relationship (whether formal, strictly business, or informal) with our customers.

This is what keeps us top of mind, relevant, and cordial enough to ask for repeat business, and for them to bring their friends, family members, and associates.

Even if you’re not in a relationship with a customer, a relationship is the most profitable configuration you could get when you start running a business.

So yes! When we “close the deal” we “open a relationship” with the customer.

How do we know that a customer has become “troublesome?”

Is it purely a matter of how much mutual animosity we have towards each other when we wake up in the morning?

Or is it a matter of “as the spirit leads” when we go through the day?

Actually there is some objective criteria that we can use to assess who has become a troublesome customer from who is not.

Being troublesome or quarrelsome depends on the level of time, attention, and effort that is required to service the customer and maintain the relationship... especially when compared to other customers you have.

If you’re a cattle rancher or some other kind of commodities trader, customers raise their voices at you everyday... that’s not enough reason to say they are quarrelsome.

You’d have to weigh how much time and effort that is going into servicing the customer and obtaining the business.

The troublesome customer in this case isn’t the one who raises his voice the most, but rather the one who requires too much “maintenance” to get the business relationship going, or to keep them happy and keep the business profitable for you.

Some customers might be curt and abrasive but apart from that, business with them is swift, prompt, and profitable.

Other customers might be good Christians but they act passive aggressive, pay their bills thirty days late, you only make 0.5% margin on their deals, and they always want to return something, replace another, and claim reimbursement for something else.

Which do you think is the troublesome customer?

Sometimes it could be an open customer service issue that is ongoing with no reasonable prospects of being resolved... it feels as if this isn’t going to get resolved anytime soon.

Perhaps the customer is being verbally abusive to your staff, or maybe the customer is requiring so much customization that your margins on the deal are being undercut.

These are some of the objective standards that we can use to judge when we have a difficult customer on our hands.

If we only have to rely on how good or bad they make us feel, that won’t give us any clear basis for deciding on when to cut the cord, how to do it, and the kind of policies we come up with in the business to prevent from this from recurring.

Now that we know WHO a difficult customer is, the next question should be WHY or HOW a difficult customer is created.

Difficult customers are created sometimes because people can be nasty and narcissistic.

There is no point in dealing with those kinds of people here because we can do nothing about how people were born or parented.

But there is a second category of difficult customers that we can do something about, and it’s more likely that this is the kind of difficult customers most of us would face.

Most difficult customers are created because there was a difference or shortcoming in expectations.

Customers get difficult when they thought they were promised one thing and they are getting another, or friction enters the relationship because the vendor thought he was clear on what he promised, but is being forced to go over and beyond the agreement.

In other words, most of us will have difficult customers because expectations were not clearly set.

If you get better at setting expectations, then the incidences of difficult customers you have will drastically reduce.

How do you set expectations the right way, first of all you have to be sure that you understood the clients needs in the first place.

It’s not just enough to draw up a list of everything they need, you want to get feedback from them that you had the right understanding from the start.

Also it’d be nice to run through all the implications of their decisions to be sure that they’re okay with the possible outcomes.

Sometimes a customer insists on something and you the professional can see that it’s not workable, or that it has significant pitfalls.

How do you figure out their needs?

Ask them using open ended questions!

“How can I help you today?”
“Why have you decided to explore XYZ now?”
“What kind of results are you looking for by using XYZ?”

Open questions like these get the customers talking with excess information so that you have more data to drill down on what the customer is aiming for.

If the customer answers your questions by saying he wants to buy a camera because he is thinking of becoming a wedding vendor and they want to roll out videos shot in 4K resolution, then that affects the different range of cameras you can show him.

Also when you are very clear about what his needs are, it narrows down the room for conflict in the future AFTER he buys the camera.

Sometimes a customer walks in and says they want “a correct camera” or the “best camera in the market” or the “latest XYZ camera brand”.

In this kind of situation, if you make a recommendation without asking further questions, don’t be surprised when later they come back into your store shouting that you sold them a N500,000 camera that doesn’t even record 4K video!

It’s not that they’re being difficult. You didn’t ask the right questions to begin with and so you sold them equipment that wasn’t fit for their unique purpose.

So now that we have discussed how to figure out their need, how do we get feedback that we have understood correctly?

The process is the same! Ask them using open ended questions!

“is there anything else that I have missed?”
“apart from XYZ is there anything you were looking for in the service?”
“so if I understand you correctly, the most important thing you want to achieve with this is ABC and 123?”

This is the point where the customer will say something like, “yes you are correct about recording videos, BUT I was also hoping the camera would also do XYZ...”

All the “but” and “maybe”, or “possibly” are areas where trouble could arise in the future.

The more information you have, the better your product or service recommendation will be.

If your recommendation is spot on, then you won’t have a difficult customer... except if you’re dealing with those people without home training. I can’t help you there!

Lets reduce our chances of having difficult customers by making sure we ask all the right questions in the beginning.

Also remember to explore implications with the choices they have made so far. You are the professional so there are certain things the customer might not be aware of.

If you say something like, “Oga shey you know that if you take this camera because of the video capability and you run it for 45 minutes, the battery will die quickly?” ...that is important information that might be useful to the customer!

They might now expand their priorities and say that the camera doesn’t have to be 4K so long as the recording time can be up to 1hr 30 minutes.

It’s best to have this conversation now before they come back into your shop shouting at your staff because they sold a “fake camera” that dies after 30 minutes.

Now that we have explored a number of scenarios that can create difficult customers, the most important question now becomes, “how do I handle the breakup?”

First off, it would be nice to see how we can handle the break up without any acrimony.

This would involve a debrief session and some customer service processes.

The debrief would be the conversation where you take responsibility and try to figure out what wen’t wrong. You can also seek some insight on what you could’ve done better.

Where you can, try to address some of the issues raised and then fulfil the rest of the contract like you would any customer.

BUT unlike other customers, once you are done you don’t try to get any referrals, repeat business or nurture the relationship in anyway.

The goal in this scenario is to avoid burning bridges and not actively pursue the relationship anymore.

Why is it a bad idea to burn bridges behind you? Because you don’t know who might come in handy in the future. A bitter enemy today might be a useful resource tomorrow!

So in this case the approach might be...

“Madam Sylvia I’m sorry about how things turned out and I’m taking full responsibility now to make sure that this kind of thing never happens again. Is it okay if I ask you a few questions?”

After you have gotten permission then you can go into the questions to probe for more details. The more information you have, the more ideas you’ll have around redress.

“When did you first realize you had a problem with the camera?”
“What happened exactly?”
“Apart from XYZ did you have any other issues?”
“Apart from wedding videos, did you try to use it for anything else?”

If you’re store has a “no returns” policy, then there might be nothing you can do, but an apology and this kind of approach might soothe some nerves.

Of course we have to do the good Nigerian thing and say “Sorry Ma, I promise that this won’t happen again”.

I can’t stress enough that in this situation, if the client really caused you grief, you cannot do any of the traditional “follow up activities” with the client anymore.

Don’t call or text them for birthdays, don’t call to say hello, don’t call to see how business is doing... doing any of these things will keep you top of mind and might bring more opportunities for doing business with the client again.

If you’re trying to avoid doing business with them in the future, there should be absolutely no “follow up”.

What about situations where THEY take the initiative and reach out to you in the future?

You could play the “availability” card...

“Sorry Sir we’re not available for that date... can you call XYZ Ltd instead? They might be able to help”

If that sounds too cowardly for you, you can be more assertive about it...

“Thanks for calling Sir, unfortunately I’m not confident we can meet your needs because of how things turned out the last time. I suggest you give some other business a try”.

If you’re desperate and you could use the money, then the next approach is two fold.

First make sure you ask as many questions as possible to figure out the need the client has, the vision that they’re aiming for with your product or service, and explore with them any possible scenarios that might come up and how to address them.

The second step would be to charge them an amount that would make it worth all the hassle.

In fact some people charge them an unreasonable price the second time around just so that they go away!

Regardless of which options you take, the most important thing is to NOT get down on yourself and the business.

Difficulties arise every once in a while and we can’t expect to be cordial with everyone.

Take your business and relationship losses where you can, and double down on the business relationships that are the most profitable and fulfilling.

Don’t let anyone use their blues to ruin your reggae... and as one of my business partners prayed after a particularly difficult client, “may we never see this kind of customer again in Jesus’ name!”

I receive messages all the time like “Hi, can I assist you in getting more interactions and followers? Contact me if interested.”

Why would someone send me a random message like this?

Actually it makes sense because I don’t have a high follower count on social media like my twitter and Instagram. And off course low follower-ship means I also have low engagement... or relatively low engagement depending on how you look at it.

Is it a good idea for a social media manager to send emails out like this to random people.

Actually it is! And we should celebrate them for their effort.

We have to give props to people who reach out this way because it’s a good use of social media for getting new clientele.

In traditional sales theory and discipline, we call this act PROSPECTING.

Prospecting is the act of looking for new people to talk to who might be interested in your product or your service.

Using social media as an “inbound strategy” is good. Inbound is throwing things out into the internet to ATTRACT the right kinds of people.

Outbound strategy is also good as well. Outbound is when you go snooping around looking for people to talk to.

Outbound is proactive because you are taking the initiative. Inbound is reactionary because you put out the bait and wait to respond to any engagement that follows.

So when people reach out like this over the internet, what they are doing is outbound and prospecting.

So props to you if you engage in this kind of activity because it requires courage. No one likes being rejected personally, and that’s what you risk when you put yourself out in this way.

Also engaging in this kind of activity is important because you need a healthy mix of both inbound and outbound for the best results.

Nothing works all the time and not all means of generating revenue and marketing activity will work in the way you want it to.

If you have a healthy mix of inbound and outbound sales activities, then they can work together to give a balanced result while each one ebbs and flows individually.

Hopefully if customers from inbound activities are low, outbound should make up the difference and vice versa.

All the businesses you love and respect have BOTH inbound and outbound teams.

Even Coca Cola still has salespeople and they keep looking for new distributors. You’d think that by now they should rest on their brand alone and take things easy? Unfortunately branding and inbound don’t work in perpetuity.

Now that we have the congratulations out of the way, there’s one subtle point we have to examine about how to go about prospecting and performing outbound activities.

Remember that we can substitute “outbound” and “prospecting” with “going out of your way to look for customers”.

It’s not an effective way to look for customers by assuming that YOU know what THEY need.

If your assumption is wrong, then there’s no reason for the potential customer to keep talking to you. They’ll say “no thank you” and move along.

Even if your assumption is right, it might seem too presumptuous and pushy to begin a conversation that way.

Some people “lock up” when they are told what to do or to think... especially in situations where they are going to be spending lots money.

It is best to start the conversation by using open questions to explore the vision the potential client has in mind, the problems they have, or what their particular context is.

In this scenario, instead of assuming that the client has a problem, why not ask different questions to begin the conversation...

“Do you have a problem with getting followers on Instagram?”
“Do you think this problem is costing you money?”
“Would you like more engagement on your posts?”
“Is engagement a problem for you on XYZ social media?”
“Why did you set up a social media handle anyway?”

You don’t have to ask all these questions at the same time in an interrogation like style. Any one of these questions delivered with the right intent should be enough to start a productive conversation.

If the person had tried start a conversation like this with me, they could’ve discovered that my goal with social media isn’t likes and follows, but paid speaking, training and consulting engagements.

My strategy is to use social media as a portfolio to show off my body of work and ideas when speaking to a particular potential client.

The goal of my accounts is to show competence and credibility; that I know what I’m talking about and I have the knowledge base to help.

Because of that I’m okay getting 2 to 5 followers a month organically because I’m not focused on how many followers I have, but on whether my handles make it easy to close business when I’m having a phone conversation with someone.

If she had tried open ended questions and conversations, she’d have discovered that my problem is “paying clients” and not “followers and engagement”.

The funny thing is, she probably has some knowledge base about how to solve that problem as well!

But we’ll never know because instead she said “....can I assist you in getting more interactions and followers?” And I responded the same knee jerk way that everyone in the planet would.

My response was “no thanks, I’m good. Thanks for reaching out and more power to your hustle.”

Actually my response was better than what most of you would do.

Most of you would just... IGNORE.

In fact some of you would ignore and block.

Try doing things another way to improve your chances for success.

Outbound prospecting isn’t a bad way of looking for customers so long as you know how to do it right.

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The average person has some reasonable concerns the first time they come in contact with you in a business setting.

They don’t know who you are, they usually haven’t heard about your product or service, and so it doesn’t help that you’re immediately trying to convince them that yours is the latest and greatest they should buy.

If you look at things from this angle, then it become acutely obvious why they will have issues with your pricing.

Price is a proxy for value so off course they will become uncertain. That’s the heuristic they’ll use subconsciously to gauge the amount of “value” in a buying situation.

This is one of the most common objections EVERY business owner and self employed person will get.

An objection is a reason or concern that the customer will give for why they are not ready to go ahead now, or why they shouldn’t go with you.

Very few customers are going to approach you and say that you didn’t get the business because your price was too low! It does happen! But we can explore those scenarios at a later date.

So in the midst of all these insecurities concerning who you are, how capable your product or service is, and the cost of what you have put on the table, doing business with you has now become a risky proposition!

Given that we are all going to hear “your price is too high” or “that’s really expensive” at some point in our lives, it’d be a good idea to brainstorm and think about possible ways of dealing with this concern.

If we know that some of our prospective customers are going to think it, we should come up with a framework for addressing those concerns beforehand.

The worst time to think of an answer to a problem is when you have a potential customer or a paying client on hand.

We want the buying experience, customer interation and the process with us to be seamless and professional... and it’s not professional to watch someone fumble through a response.

There are a multitude of ways you can drive the conversation when someone hits you with the “your price is too high” concern.

But no matter which way you choose to respond, there’s one thing they all have in common.

All ways of responding agree that it’s a bad idea to start arguing about why yours is the best price and the greatest and most valuable on the market.

If someone is convinced that your price is too high, it’s not your argument that is going to change that... and most likely they have some concerns that are behind the statement.

So instead of trying to argue your case, why not ask questions to figure out the chief concerns and the real reasons the person has? At least from that point if you’re trying to argue something, you’ll know for sure what you’re arguing against.

If they say your price is too high, then empathize and ask them a question in return!

“My sister everything is expensive these days! But when you say my price is too high, you mean compared to what?”

A question like this will get you some information on other alternatives the customer has been looking at. With this info you’ll be able to make a case by case comparison on which is better and why, and maybe possibly educate them on things they are missing out.

You could also educate and “re qualify” the potential customer.

Qualification is the process of asking questions to be sure that you’re speaking to the right customer in the first place.

You want to be sure that the person you’re talking to has a want or need that you, your product or service can fulfill.

We also want to be sure that they have a reasonable time frame for taking action, and that you guys are mostly in agreement when it comes to money and other expectations.

That is a “qualified” customer and the best person to be having conversations with. If you don’t figure this out, the chances are you’re wasting your time.

If you’re trying to sell air conditioning to Bill Gates but he says there’s no need for that in his winter mansion, then you’re wasting your time. He has the money and can afford it, but he doesn’t think there’s a need for it.

Only talk to qualified customers!

Now back to pricing concerns!

Sometimes when someone says “your price is too high” it’s because you weren’t speaking to a qualified client in the first place. You probably don’t have someone who has realistic expectations on what the market for your product or service is.

In this case, education would be giving them a price range and a brief tour of what’s available in the market. After that you follow up with a question to gauge what their comfort level is with all this new information.

You might say...

“In the market for XYZ you can expect to get anything between 1M and 2.5M depending on whether you’re looking for features ABC. So what exactly are you looking for? And which price range are you comfortable with?”

If you didn’t do a good job of qualifying them before, then this will give you an opportunity to start figuring out exactly what they need, and what a realistic budget should be.

In cases like this, it would be okay to send them back into the market to do some research for themselves, and then you guys can talk again at a later date.

Some folks have even proposed that when someone says “the price is too high”, what is at stake is a confidence issue! They don’t have confidence in you, or the product or service.

In that case you can ask the question...

“Is the price too high, or your not confident that I can deliver on everything we’ve discussed?”

This is a useful question because it’s helpful to get to the root of what they feel insecure about with you or your product or service offering. If you don’t know what the issues are, you can’t address them.

It’s possible they feel insecure because you’re too young and inexperienced.

Knowing this will allow you to argue that even though you’re only 3 years in the filed, you have a roster of 50 happy clients behind you who would be willing to give a testimonial.

You could also try to persuade them that your installation guys or field hands have over 15 years experience, or that you only work with materials of XYZ quality.

These could be ways to bolster your credibility, show come competence, and justify your original asking price.

When someone says “the price is too high”, the reason why you shouldn’t start arguing is because this is a complicated issue and they might be crying foul for any number of reasons which you don’t know right now.

You are better off trying to calm the situation down, ask a couple of questions to get to the root of their concerns, and make your best replies against what’s really going in their minds.

So the next time someone says “that’s so expensive!” Don’t get defensive and start justifying yourself.

Ask them questions and figure out where they’re really coming from.

If you know where they’re coming from, you’ll know where to lead the conversation to.

Networking after hours is a thing!

This has to be said because the conception a lot of us have about networking is more formal, happening during regular hours, and maybe a little too buttoned up and sober.

I have to admit most of the times when I talk or write about networking, what I have in mind is corporate events, networking sessions, or natural opportunities that come up during the business day where you get to meet and talk to a total stranger.

Hopefully from these serendipitous circumstances, we get to form some alliances and get associates for the long term.

But what about situations that occur after working hours, usually after dark, and where most of us already “kinda” know each other?

Does this count as networking?

Back in my undergraduate days at Obafemi Awolowo University, there was one of my profs in particular who was convinced that you can’t succeed as a lawyer if you didn’t drink, hangout, and if you didn’t like the UEFA league.

His rationale? If that’s all your high profile clients engage in, then you have to get involved.

Nowadays we have more avenues for cultural and self expression and a lot popular subcultures, so it doesn’t have to be UEFA anymore.

But the question is can we consider that networking as well?

It depends!

Networking isn’t THE EVENT or the context you are in.

Networking is a process, a framework, and a FRAME OF MIND that you have while in a particular context.

If you look at it this way, then hanging out in beer parlors can be networking. Going to church can be networking. And going to the spa with your girls can be networking as well.

Why am I talking about this today?

Because recently I was called to an introduction for mutual business associates which happened in an open air bar and it involved beer, grilled chicken, fish, plantain, peppered spices, and some boys smoking shisha in the corner.

Luckily as a sales professional, I know how quickly we can loose focus in the “rapport biulding” stage so I did my best to guide things along all through the three hours of “networking”.

So if networking is NOT an event, but a framework and a frame of mind, then how do we steer a beer powered bro fest into a productive networking session?

For one you have to accept that “it is what it is”.

Some folks dont’ think that they know you until they have “broken bread” with you.

So go out and “break bread” with a bunch of people.

Step two is you have to take the initiative just like in any other sales, professional or business context.

You have to steer the conversation the right way at the right time.

While having fun with the group, your aim should be to figure out 1. Who are the people here? 2. What are the things they’re interested in and what are their priorities? 3. How do all these interests align? And 4. Who here is worth building a relationship with in the future.

How do you achieve all these? By asking questions! Sales and business conversations have to always be “question driven”.

If you’re asking questions, the other party will do most of the talking and you’ll get to learn a great deal about them and figure out what possible coalitions can come from this.

Apart from that since you’ll be listening a lot, most people will find you to be an agreeable conversationalist.

If you don’t ask questions but rather you’re thinking of the smartest thing to say, or how to wow people with how cool you are, then you might come off as impressive! But you won’t have all the information you need on how to assess the people there, the relationships, and the possible business relationships that might come from it.

If you want to figure out who these people are, just ask!

“So what do you do?”
“How did you and XYZ become friends?”
“How did you guys meet?”
“Why are you the only Arsenal fan here?”

Any of these kinds of questions could be the entry point for further personal conversations. This should give enough room for “rapport biulding” and for you guys to discover elements of commonality between you.

The process is the same to figure out things they are interested in and their priorities...

“Do you work at ABC like the rest of the guys?”
“What are your opinions about XYZ?”
“What’s the end goal for this business?”
“How did you get into business?”
“What was important to you for getting into this career?”

When you ask these kinds of questions, it easier to see how the interests of everyone around the bar align.

You can quickly figure out who the cool kids are, the interesting kids, and the people who would be worth building a relationship with after all the alcohol clears your system.

We might all think Peter Obi is great, we love Manchester United and Nikki Minaj, but it doesn’t mean we have to go into business together and have professional collaborations.

That’s the point of asking questions when you engage in conversations. It gives you all the information you need!

Sometimes the conversations will steer WAY off course like once I was out with a crew and we started bemoaning the loss of traditional family values and parental responsibility.

After a while the conversation started getting down and out over the future of Nigeria and prospects for the youth and nation building.

All I did to shift the conversation was to declare “it shall be well” as we like to say in Nigeria. After that I asked the open question “so what are we celebrating today?” (because obviously we had loads of food and drink) and that was enough to get someone talking on the business opportunity they thought I could lend some insights to.

I am not saying these things to endorse loose talk, alcohol, misogyny, and staying out late.

I’m just saying that whether this ends up as networking or not will depend on YOU and how you choose to steer the conversations that follow.

The principle is the same whether you’re at a spa for ladies night out, or whether you’re a young lady escorting a friend to go and see another friend.

Networking isn’t about the time and the place.

It’s about your head space at the moment.

Some business problems are wonderful to have... like when you have too many customers and you don’t know what to do.

Other kinds of business scenarios can be confusing as well, especially where you have no clear frameworks around what the answers should be, and what the next steps are.

Let’s explore one of the later scenarios!

Imagine you are a caterer and you’ve just done a really stellar job for a corporate client.

Let’s imagine that your specialty is grilled foods, open baked meats, rice, plantains, snails etc... anything that can be grilled!

Let’s also imagine that because of your service delivery and the poise and conduct of your staff, one of the directors of the company calls one of your serving staff aside.

This company director commends her for the service and hands over their business card to be handed over to you the business owner.

In this scenario as the owner of the business, what should you do?

It’s understandable that most people wouldn’t know what the next appropriate step should be.

Should you hang on to the card?

How should you follow up?

When a prospect hands over their card, what are you supposed to do?

Isn’t it usually the other way round? Shouldn’t the person be asking for MY card?

Before we begin to examine answers, we have to give props to anyone who finds themselves in this situation.

You need kudos and praise if you’re in this situation because you’re not just a “run of the mill” professional.

You have found a way to distinguish yourself from the crowd.

In this instance, this caterer ONLY cooks grilled food and serves things that can be grilled or cooked over an open fire.

Here there’s a strong reason for people to enquire and book your services.

The people who get in touch with you will either crave that kind of cooking or they won’t. I doubt you’ll run into too many “indifferent” customers that way.

In this scenario the caterer stands apart from other cateres in town and in her space.

Here there’s a reason apart from “price” that customers have to pay special attention to her.

So kudos if you’ve found a niche, or a strong way to differentiate yourself in the market.

In today’s world of commoditization of products and services, differentiation is the key way to survive.

Also kudos and props if your staff are so well trained and professional that they stand out to the customers.

This is a power move because you have realized that your staff are extensions of you and your brand and because of that, it has implications for the sales process.

If your staff appear professional, then you as a service provider and business owner now seem more credible than most of your competitors.

You have now achieved differentiation on two fronts 1. Your product or service is unique from others 2. Your service delivery also stands out from the rest.

Now to answer the question!

What do you do when a potential customer or prospect hands over THEIR card and they talk about how they’re impressed with your service?

From a sales perspective, the answer is fairly simple.

Pick a day and call them!

The purpose of the call should be 1. To thank them for the business 2. Get details about parts of the service they loved 3. Get details about things that could be improved 4. Make a request for repeat business and referrals.

A simple conversational outline could begin with...

“Thank you very much sir, it was a pleasure serving you guys last weekend. I hope you don’t mind if I ask you a few questions? It would help me greatly improve my service because I value the opinions of customers such as you”

You don’t have to sound this formal. Any way of saying the general gist of something like this would be fine.

This conversation also doesn’t have to be in English.

If you guys are vibing in Hausa or Yourba, it’s fine as well.

The reason why you’re going to ask questions about what they loved is because the things they loved are the things you should continue to do!

Ask questions about the things you could’ve done better so that you know what you need to improve upon.

If you’re constantly doubling down on things people like and improving on aspects of your service that fall short, you’ll be slowly biulding up on the aspects of your services that are unique.

This will greatly help your sales and marketing efforts because you now will know what you are a super star in.

Once you figure out what makes you a superstar, that data should be the part of your messaging that you emphasize.

The final part of the conversation doesn’t have to be daunting.

They handed over THEIR business card for a reason. It’s okay to ask about that.

“Is there another event you would like me to cater for?”

“Did you want me to add you to my mailing list?”

“Is it okay for me to keep in touch once in a while?”

“Do you have any friends and associates that would love this kind of experience?”

“Do you know anyone planning any special celebrations soon?”

“Which other of your friends and associates would you like me to call sir?”

You don’t have to ask all of these questions at once, but any of them would be a good opener. It will give you an excuse to slide into the reason why they handed over their card to your staff.

All this seems well and good, but what if they don’t answer their phone? After all lots of “big people” in society don’t like to answer numbers they are unfamiliar with.

The solution is simple! After the phone rings out leave a WhatsApp or a text message.

The message should have a few elements 1. Appropriate greeting 2. State your intention 3. Ask a question 4. Move to close.

What’s an appropriate greeting? That depends on how you talk and the context of how you met the client.

“Good afternoon Sir. This is Kemi the caterer from last Saturday’s event. You gave my server your business card and I tried calling in response. Let me know when you’re available to talk and I’ll call you back. I’d love to see I can be of service to you and the organization in the future.”

You don’t have to sound this formal, and it doesn’t have to be in English (assuming you can text in Yoruba!)... but the gist is the same.

Your message should greet and say who you are, why you called, and gain a commitment so that you guys can talk at a future date.

That is what “a close” is. It is getting a commitment to do something in the future.

There is a lot more that can be expounded on from a sales perspective, but this should serve as an overview of what to do when you find yourself in this situation.

Sales, business conversations and phone conversations don’t have to be scary.

So long as you have simple conversational frameworks, you can have fruitful conversations with total strangers and use those to bring in more business.

It’s a good idea to do some market research and “survey the land” before you jump into a new venture.

It doesn’t have to be anything “hi tech”.

Sometimes sending a survey to some friends and family members should be enough to get the research going.

After all if you can’t start with family and friends, who should you start with?

People who already know you will be willing to give you the time of day, while total strangers will have no problem with “blowing you off”.

Before we go into any possible issues that might arise, we should first ask ourselves the pivotal question...

Can we indeed use surveys to explore and develop ideas before you launch into a new business?

YES!

But make sure you are taking polls from the right segment of people to begin with. You have to be sure that the information or data set you get is from the right “pool” of people.

If you’re getting information from a population segment that doesn’t have the problem, or understand the problem that you are trying to solve, then you are going to get either useless information, or information that might poison the design of your product or service.

Once a friend reached out to me for advice on an app. He is in the fashion business and he has this idea that men would be comfortable buying ready made wear via an app.

So what he wanted from me was tips around style selection as well as some talking points around the app itself.

It’s understandable for someone who’s a fashion entrepreneur to reach out to friends, family and associates when beginning the enterprise, but there are a few things we ought to note here.

I know nothing about clothes and fashion!

I don’t pay for tailoring services via an app!

I don’t buy ready made clothing off any website (yes I know that my wife and other women do!)

Also I am “tech averse” and only use the apps that I’ve been forced to use such as my banking apps, email apps, podcast recording app, and other apps like Instagram that I use for business purposes.

If you use surveys and opinions polls from people like me in this context, you will make bad clothes, and you’ll make an app with poor design, usability and user/ customer experience.

If you are going to send the survey to people you know, how about a few pre qualifying questions before you send it out?

“Hey bro (sis, auntie, dear friend, valued customer) I’d like to pick your brain about something, do you like to baff up?”

“How do you decide which clothes to wear?”

“How do you make styling choices?”

“Is fashion important to you?”

Positive answers to questions like this means it’s a good idea to go ahead and send the whole survey to them.

Negative, uninterested, or lackluster answers will mean that this is a bad candidate to send this survey to.

If you don’t do this, your friend or family member will wake up one day with an email link for a survey.... and they’ll just ignore it.

The goal isn’t to send this survey for people to just ignore. Yes you aren’t spending much money or time to send these things out, but there’s valuable data that we’re hoping to get back from this activity.

People are not in the habit of responding to surveys without any prior context.

The prior context isn’t just that they know you, but that they’re also interested in the subject, have some knowledge or opinions about it, and possibly that they are expecting you to send the survey.

At the very least give them some reasons in the email or the survey as to WHY you have chosen to send it to them.

If you are going to use my suggestion of “pre qualifying” people before sending out the survey, then ask them a few questions via chat or SMS before hand.

The answers to these questions will help you decide 1. If they are the right person to talk to and 2. It will provide a relevant context beforehand so that they are expecting the survey, and increase their likelihood of responding.

If you follow these kinds of suggestions then you should have the right information you need to move ahead.

So think smart before you send out your surveys and opinion polls.

Would you rather send out 1,000 emails and have 5 people respond? Or you put in the work and send out 100 emails and only 40 people respond?

Which exercise do you think will give you more useful data?

Some gurus have made a career out of saying really interesting things.

One of such things relates to sales and marketing in general.

The saying goes that when it comes to sales and marketing, some things are old and irrelevant, while the new and the modern is the only way to go.

Is it true that when it comes to business there’s the outdated art of “so and so”?

Can we talk about the “modern principles” of anything in business?

Let’s start with advertising...

There's no such thing as modern advertising principles.

There might be new PRACTICES AND TACTICS, but the old PRINCIPLES still apply.

The principles of good advertising remain always and are valid. The challenge for us modern business people is to creatively adapt them to changing times and changing circumstances.

The internet didn’t come and change any principles of advertising... we just found new ground and circumstances for applying ancient principles.

For instance on the idea of targeting... modern business commentators talk about targeting as a new principle derived from digital, online and performance marketing which should be applied to everyday situations and all businesses.

You’d think they had invented the concept!

Actually it has always been a core principle that advertising should be targeted and relevant!

I was shocked to find such “modern” principles being espoused in “ancient” advertising texts from the 70’s and 80’s.

My mother is a retired PR, marketing, and advertising professional... I learn some stuff from snooping around her old university textbooks.

Targeting and relevancy in advertising has always been a core guiding light! Why do we assume that business people of yore were okay with making irrelevant and poorly targeted ads?

The problem is, in the 50’s to the 80’s (and before) all they had was DEMOGRAPHIC information and so the best they could do was DEMOGRAPHIC TARGETING.

Advertising of that era would target certain neighborhoods, age brackets, occupation, sex, TV and radio stations, specific magazines and trade publications etc.

That was all the information that they had, and they made the best of it!

Today because of the prevalence of the internet and the proliferation of ways for people to consume information.... we now have the ability to get PSYCHOGRAPHIC information and we can now target and refine to people’s particular tastes.

Because of this, we don’t have to be now limited to age, sex, location and occupation in advertising; we can target people specifically who are interested in shark fin soup and advertise exclusively to them where they hang out over the internet.

Before the internet, the best you could was advertise on the most popular cooking show on TV and cross your fingers.

Not anymore! Now your advertisement can get to your target audience directly as she scrolls through Instagram.

I don’t have to advertise a sales training program over the general radio anymore because I can find and create audiences online who are interested in business development and advertise and push messages out exclusively to them.

The principle of targeted advertising isn't modern!

It's ancient!

We have just found modern application for ancient principles.

Facebook and Google ad practitioners didn’t invent the idea of targeted advertising.

They are just able to execute it to a finer degree and accuracy because of modern technology.

It's just the application of targeting and relevancy that has been expanded over time.

So long as humans remain fundamentally the same, there’s no reason to expect that good business principles should change over time.

When humans change, the principles of advertising will change.

Until then, there is no “new” anything.

And by the way, can we stop talking about the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s as ancient? You’d be surprised about what later kids from 3018 will say about our business practices today.

It can be crushing being entrepreneurial or self employed right?

There’s no boss or line manager involved so YOU have the task of whipping yourself into shape and making sure that business and work tasks get done.

Apart from this, responsibility for the paycheck now rests squarely on your shoulders.

When all these factors seem to militate against you, remember that you might be focusing too much on business for self validation.

Self validation is the idea of how you see yourself and grant yourself worth.

As a business owner you should be focusing on market validation.

It’s much easier to track and sometimes can give a clear hint about where next you could go with the business.

Market validation is the idea of feedback you get from your customers and stakeholders about which products and services are working and which ones fall flat.

Market validation, no matter how small shows you that SOMETHING is working and provides a hint of where you need to double down on to make things grow faster.

So if you make wedding videos and lease stage equipment, don’t get all flustered and feel insignificant or undervalued by the market because you didn’t get the number of bookings you planned for.

Take stock of the little sales you have made so far. You might realize that not only have you done MORE equipment rentals this year, but that it’s also less tasking than shooting wedding videos.

If you run the numbers and you see that equipment rentals has greater margins, take this as a sign from the market about where to double down your efforts.

Don’t feel bad that you’re under appreciated.

Look at whatever market validation you have, and use that data to creatively plough forward.

That’s where you gain the confidence to muscle on and keep selling.

See what works, and keep doing it!

Sometimes you’re really stuck in business because you can’t decide which types of customers to go after.

This isn’t an academic exercise .

For instance some folks in the wedding industry wonder if it’s a good idea to chase all kinds of brides and grooms, or maybe focus on a narrower set like say “northern brides and grooms”.

These are legitimate questions to ask which can affect your profits and the future prospects of the business.

While there are lots of ways to determine this, one sure fire way which leads to more traction is to consider your trading history to date.

How do you decide who to chase after to grow your profits?

How about looking at your records to see who has bought from you in the past and then go after more of those people?

In theory if some people of a market segment have done business with you in the past and they’re responsible for most of your profits, then why not lean in and continue? Especially if this customer segment has come with low stress and good margins?

For instance you might be a wedding photographer who believes that the future of the business lies with targeting brides in diaspora which have healthy profit margins.

However if you have a look at your old invoices, you might be surprised to learn that not only were most of your brides local, but you made the most money and had the most fun working with “out of state brides” in the neighboring states and cities.

So in the meantime while you’re coming up with solid plans to capture the international bride and the huge payments in dollars, why not drill down on this segment that’s already giving you most of the profits and most of the creative fun and challenges?

It’s good to look to our aspirations when it comes to growing the business, but also looking to the past history and the market validation we have achieved, can be good signposts for healthy and sure profits.

It is a good idea for most business folks to hire a sales expert, marketing specialist, or communications specialist.

The reason why it’s a good idea to do so at some point is because most of us struggle from time to time with our marketing, managing our sales and customer services processes, and off course we’re perennially worrying about how effective our business communications are.

However before we hire any of these individuals, there are a few things we need to figure first.

Before you hire a marketing or communications specialist, or sales expert you have to figure out who your customer is.

The average marketing specialist is going to assume that you know who your customer is and plug away at ideas to reach them with brilliant marketing campaigns and advertising.

The problem is, if you don’t know who your ideal target audience or who your ideal customer is, then you’ll be spending money chasing down the wrong customer.

If this kind of marketing works, then you’ll be bringing people in who aren’t a fit for the kind of goals you hope to achieve as a business.

Before you call the marketing specialist in, and before you call in someone to improve your Google and Instagram advertising, be sure that you know FOR SURE who your customer is.

You can’t blame the marketing specialist for not delivering if you set them on the wrong target in the first place.

Luckily the communications experts are always concerned about being EFFECTIVE in communications so they’ll want to cross check from the beginning that they have the right recipient for all the communications you guys will be blasting out.

If you don’t know for sure who your ideal customers or who the primary stakeholders are, don’t worry... the communications specialist will help you out with that.

Just make sure you have a good starting point in the first place.

The sales process on the other hand already has it built in that you should be talking to a “qualified” customer.

This is someone who has a want or a need, a reasonable certain time frame for taking action, and can afford your product or service.

The sales professional will want to be sure that they’re talking to the ideal customer from the get go.

In either scenario you can see that if you’ve already started asking yourself these hard questions, you should have enough information to make sure you get the most out of the investment of having a sales consultant, marketing specialist, or communications specialist.

Ask yourself these hard questions today so that your money can be well invested tomorrow when you call in the professionals.

Some folks have a poor understanding about what sales really is.

Some people think sales is about looking and sounding good, and then eventually someone will buy.

Others think it’s about sounding capable and convincing, and then eventually someone will take the leap and buy.

There are others who believe that selling isn’t necessary because if you make the better product, or if you have the superior service, people will automatically flock to your side and buy.

Looking and sounding good is important because very few people are going to be objective enough to say, “let me hear what this repulsive person has to say.... maybe their product or service might be able to help me”.

So looking and sounding good is important! At the very least, we have to look and sound appropriate for the situation and the context at hand.

Showing how competent and credible you are is also important, because no one wants a service provider or a product that might be incompetent or useful at the outset.

People who buy from us are either trying to solve a problem, or to achieve a particular vision. If your product or service isn’t going to help them in that pursuit, there’s no logical reason for them to waste money with you.

Having the best product or service in the market also helps because it can be a good driver for “worth of mouth” and referrals.

Unfortunately so far there hasn’t been any product that has “sold itself”. We still need someone at the beginning of the journey to prod things along.

All these things and more are important when it comes to sales and persuasion, but the missing ingredient here is the understanding that sales is about CLOSING.

Closing isn’t the art of collecting money from people!

Closing is the art of securing commitments from people... and the commitments aren’t always about collecting the money.

Sales is about closing!

If we look the part and sound right, but we don’t know how to get them to commit to listening to our presentation, then we aren’t going to be very good at selling.

In this case, securing the commitment is getting them to agree to having a meeting later so that we can go over a specific proposal.

Securing the commitment could also be getting them to agree to listen to your presentation and look at your glossy material that you have prepared.

If we demonstrate how capable we are and how competent we are, but we can’t answer the question “why take action now?”, then we aren’t going to be very good at selling.

In this context, securing the commitment is getting them to see that there’s good reason for taking action now. If you can’t do that, then they’ll say “let me think about it”, and that might be the end of the matter.

Closing is about securing commitments!

Whenever you are face to face with a potential customer, there is always another NEXT STEP that has to be taken before they make the ultimate move of paying your fee.

Sometimes the next step is to submit contact details, agree to a meeting, agree to a proposal, agree to a physical on site inspection, etc... depending on what industry you are involved in.

That is the key distinguishing factor in sales.

We have to get good at figuring out who we’re talking to, what the best next step should be, and figure out any good reasons why they should take the next step with us.

Closing isn’t collecting the big amount of money at the end... it’s about getting them to take the small steps with you in the middle.

The small steps eventually lead to the big finish.

Thanks for following! I’ll do my best to make sure you have useful daily insights around the topics of sales, and one to one marketing.

Have a fabulous day, and more power to your hustle.

...and one more thing... why not go ahead and spell out what the good marketing strategies you’re advocating for? I’m sure other readers of the post would benefit from that.

Thanks for reading and commenting! Enjoy the rest of your day.

Sales and marketing are the great persuasive arts of our time.

They are the flagship that we business people look to when we want more business and more people using our products and services.

Over time however most business people, self employed folks, and even traders or merchants will forget that last part which is essential to sales and marketing.

Sales and marketing that does not try to get a potential customer to “do something” is ineffective.

There’s no point in being articulate and fluent with a perfect presentation if the next time you meet a customer, you wow them with your poise and charm, but then you don’t have a specific “ask” to make of them.

Marketing, advertisements, and campaigns that flash your logo all over the place but don’t tell the audience what to do next are a waste of your time and money... except if this is a purely “brand” based campaign.

Sometimes the goal of a brand based campaign is just awareness and to create positive associations.

When sponsors of international football in live matches put their logos all over the place, they don’t ask you to buy their beer or their product... at least not now.

The association they have made with the audience is good for now, awareness has been achieved, and good dispositions have been created in the mind of the viewer.

Apart from scenarios like these, you’ll have some serious problems if you aren’t incorporating a CTA (call to action).

Leaving this out could be costing you sales and profits.

If your marketing isn’t working, then that could be one of the problems.

The reason why your marketing isn't working might be because you don't have a clear call to action!

You're not asking people to do anything at the end of your communications, or you might be asking them to do too many things!

A call to action could be something like “buy now”, “register to qualify”, “call us today on 080XYZABC”, or, “to learn more send us an email at ABCD”.

When you give clear action points like this, the chances are that someone will respond and do what you asked.

The good news is that people who take the action you recommended are most likely “serious” and “qualified” customers.

They either have a need, or they can see very clearly how your product or service can be useful to them.

Those people who respond are very good candidates to start engaging in direct sales conversations with.

Help your cause today with your sales efforts and marketing communications.

Give one clear call to action.

Ask and it MIGHT be given unto you.

Don’t ask? And you’ll never know!

If you’re reading this post I assume you’ve already been converted to the religion of sales and marketing.

You know that marketing is important because it helps build awareness with your potential customers about who you are, and the services you provide.

You know that’s good because it’ll help with your brand recognition when you start approaching people to do business with you, or when you start sending people out to sell on your behalf.

And I’m sure you’re not one of those people who argue whether it’s “branding over sales” because you know that both of them work in tandem to give you a healthy profit margin.

Now that we know you subscribe to everything above, a possible question for some of you is “why aren’t my margins growing?”

The answer could be because of deficiencies in your sales process, but today I’d like to look at areas where your marketing falls short.

Sometimes your marketing isn't working because you're not targeted enough... you're going “wide” instead of “niche”.

Wide is trying to talk to everyone.

Niche is talking to a particular type of person. A niche is a smaller segment of the population that has specific needs, identities and common interests.

When you try talking to everyone, no one in particular has any incentive to listen.

If someone feels like they’re being spoken to in particular, they’ll listen and it will build some resonance with the marketing or advertising you’re putting out.

If you start with a niche, you'll attract others eventually.

Effective marketing is necessary to get the plane off the ground.

If your marketing sucks, you’ll remain on the tarmac because not enough people know who you are, and your sales people will have to work really hard to get that “brand equity” or “brand recognition” in the market place.

Because of these reasons, marketing is important.

No one will buy from you if they don’t know you.

If marketing hasn’t gone ahead to create some impressions about who you are, then you’ll have to earn each and every sale by getting them to know and like you first.

So what are the reasons why marketing can be ineffective?

Your marketing could be failing because YOU don't know who YOUR CUSTOMERS are.

When you don’t know who your customers are, you end up trying to “market” to everybody!

That kind of communication is ineffective because if I’m trying to speak to everyone, then no one in particular needs to hear from me.

Sugar and salt can be bought by anyone, but even that kind of marketing is targeted at women (traditionally the homemaker), or young families who have to make cereal for kids every morning.

Even with a generic product, the marketing here is specific and targeted to get the most results.

I doubt that your product or service is as “meh” as salt and sugar.

I suspect that your product or service has more complexity and depth.

Because of that, it should be targeted to a particular audience who could best benefit from it.

How do you know who to target with your marketing efforts?

Talk to people who have already bought from you! Or talk to those who have the need you are trying to fill.

If you sell inverter batteries and solar panels, and you think you should be selling to small businesses in your area, then build your marketing around that.

But if you talk to ACTUAL PAYING CUSTOMERS who have done business with you in the past, you might find out that most of the people who have bought from you are small families with little children who don’t like being without power in hot houses with bored irritated children.

In that case, it might make more sense for your marketing and advertising to explore that customer segment.

Use all the information you get from these conversations to drive your marketing and external communications.

Even people who sell water don’t market to everyone.

Figure out who you’re trying to sell to, and make your messaging reflect that.

I was at a business expo recently. There one of my colleagues tried to start up a conversation with a potential client by saying “you are so beautiful”.

Women can get away with this kind of behaviour because it seems acceptable for one woman to complement another in a business context and it doesn’t seem untoward.

My colleague however is male.

Unfortunately for him it didn’t work after two or three tries and so he stopped it.

My recommendation to him was simple... sweet talking isn’t appropriate, and attempts to build rapport with total strangers on a busy expo floor isn’t going to work.

I was making a good faith assumption that he was trying to build rapport with the customer and nothing else.

I recommended he start with “hi” or “hello” and then move on to “would you be interested in...”

I figured it would be best to go straight to the meat of why we were all gathered there.

After a few minutes of tackling the larger BUSINESS QUESTIONS of the fair, then we could go into complements and trying to build rapport.

Complementing and sweet talk is tricky when members of the opposite sex are involved... especially in a business or official context.

If it’s a personal context, I guess we’re all adults and can make informed choices.

In a business or sales context, keep complements about attractiveness to a minimum (or zero) if you’re dealing with the member of the opposite sex.

The same goes for women talking to men.

Starting off with how handsome the guy is, is probably not a good opener for a conversation with someone you want to groom into being a business prospect.

Start off and focus on the business problems first, and then we can get cozy and friendly where appropriate at a later date.

If you’re at a convention of rat exterminators, don’t start off the conversation with “you have wonderful shoes madam”.

Begin the conversation by saying “hi and welcome to my booth! Have you had problems with pest control recently?”

It’s easy to come across as “pushy” and “aggressive” in sales... so let’s not add harassment to the list.