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Today on the podcast, we're going to be talking about prospecting ideas for prospecting online. Now, for those of you who've been listening to the podcast for a while, it's no surprise you know what prospecting means. It just means looking for customers online. Sorry, prospecting just means looking for customers. But we're going to talk about different ideas that we can carry, that we can do online. So how to look for customers online?
Basically, some ideas about this. Now, the reason why we're talking about this subject today is because I put up a post recently on LinkedIn that is the only social media that I have. So this is your first time listening to the podcast and you'd love to connect with me. Apart from calling me, sending me a text message or a WhatsApp message on 0806466 2140, you can also connect with me on LinkedIn. My name is Tavi Shima aide, You can get the right spelling from the podcast or from the YouTube channel where you are currently listening to this podcast.
Well, by the way, subscribe on Spotify, YouTube, Apple, or any player of your choice if you love these sorts of questions. How do you look for customers? How do you look for customers online? Well, before we continue, apologies for the noise in the background. I'm making today's recording at home and the kids are outside faffing about with the neighborhood kids. So that's the noise that is spilling through the background.
And then of course, just in case they get into a fight and you know, they happen to call me, you know, I have to pause the recording, go deal with that and then come back here and then continue. So like I said, we are talking about prospecting online today because I put up a post on LinkedIn. I can't remember when. Well, some people are commenting on it and it had certain ideas about what we can do when prospecting online because there are lots of people who the idea of prospecting, basically they just slide into somebody's DM
and they say, buy my product. I'm the latest, I'm the greatest, I'm the best, I'm the fastest, I'm the newest, I'm the most, whatever, whatever, whatever, buy my product. And that is a wrong way to sell online. It's a wrong way to sell. LinkedIn is the wrong way to sell on Instagram, on TikTok or whatever. So once in a while I put out posts, you know, trying to give suggestions about how you can be more tactful or more sophisticated if you're going to slide into somebody's DM.
So I gave some ideas about how you can prospect by looking at people's profiles and then based on what you see on their profiles, because some people write about, you know, their work history, things that are going on in the company, things like that. And then you can see that they're currently working on some project and your product or service aligns with what they do. So let's select now you're a copywriter and they talk about the marketing campaign that they just ran or, you know, they had disappointing marketing campaigns or successes of their marketing campaign or whatever.
Those of you who are copywriters, yeah, will make sense to slide into somebody's DM to start asking them questions about how the campaign went. You know, things like that. Trying to be a helpful resource because the scope is this. If you are talking about things that are going on in your prospects lives and you're sliding into their DM, does that not increase the chances that you will enter into a conversation with them?
Now whether this conversation is going to be a profitable conversation or not, you know, it depends. You know everything now lock what shall you try your luck. But The thing is, we're trying to slide into people's DMS in a way that at least increases the chances that our messages will be read. First of all, because trust me, when you slide into somebody's DM and you say buy my this, buy my that and the latest, I am the greatest, I am the fastest, I am AI enabled, I am the cheapest.
I am the, you know, whatever it is that you think is your USB, your unique selling proposition. Also, people are not going to read that message. So let's just be tactful. Let's be sophisticated. Let's be, you know, mature, as we say in this part of the world. Let's slide into somebody's DM as a mature somebody so that them too, you know, they'll respect us and they will engage us in a conversation. Let it be too mature people talking, too level headed people, too business professionals, as in with a young jaws, you know, as you should carry yourself.
So before I continue, since we're talking about prospecting online, what does prospecting mean? Prospecting is the practice or the art or the discipline of #1 thinking about who might be interested in your product or service, deciding on who those people are, and then coming up with some simple ideas about how you're going to start conversations with them. A lot of times the journey to business growth starts with prospecting.
It doesn't always have to be, by the way, because not everybody likes prospecting. I just think it's the best way to start for several reasons. Because when you prospect and you go out and you talk to people, you get qualitative insights. You gain first hand knowledge about them, about your customer, about what they're facing, about whether people like your product or your service. How it helps or what it's lacking. So that's the reason why I
believe everybody should prospect. I don't say you should do it forever, but at least we should start it because we'll learn one or two things that will come in handy later on. So even if you want to grow your business by doing online advertising only still engages on prospecting. The things that you learn will help you. They won't hurt you. So that is what prospecting means. So for most people, prospecting essentially just boils down to I
will enter somebody's DM or I will call up somebody on the phone, or I will knock on somebody's door because I'm trying to get a meeting to see the person in the office or whatever, or maybe I'll attend networking sessions. But either way, you can see that prospecting involves you taking the initiative, being proactive and reaching out into the market so that you can connect with your potential customers and clients. So essentially all these Turin,
she, all this stuff that I've been saying, all of that is prospecting. Now, by the way, you see why people don't like it and you see why lots of influencers or gurus don't talk about it online because it's hard. It's easier to throw money at the problem. So that's why people, you know, you have lots of people talking about copywriting, lots of people talking about social media advertising, lots of people talking about anything that just involves sitting down behind the keyboard.
Because running your business on keyboard is easy, but it's not the solution for everyone and it doesn't work in all circumstances. So please, no matter the business that you're involved in, decide today you will try some kind of prospecting activity. I'm making this recording in December of 2025. Decide the worst case scenario, January of 2026, you would try one kind of prospecting activity or the other. So that's what prospecting means.
Now how do you prospect online? Remember what I said that prospecting is the principle. It's the is the, the strategy or the practice or the whatever that involves first of all, thinking about who needs your product or your service. So prospecting begins with who is my ICP? Who is my ideal customer profile? Who is my target audience? Who is my customer avatar? Who is the person that is best suited for this product or best suited for this service?
So before we start sliding into people's DMS online, the very first question we should ask ourselves is whose DMS should I be sliding into? Now, I should not have to say this, but unfortunately people just go into people's DMS and just start blanketing messages. People send me messages and I can tell from the body of the message that they didn't even just look at my profile to see whether there's any connection between me and that product or that service.
I've received all kinds of things. All kinds. Sorry 1 moment. OK, sorry about that. I heard some commotion outside, so I had to go and check to be sure, you know, make them no brush person picking under my watch, you know, So as per I'm the only adult who's around. So lady, shine my eyes just in case. You know how it can be now when boys are just playing outside. So where was I? So now who's your ICP? That's the very first question because sometimes somebody slides into my DM and the thing that they're selling is something that that can only be used by women.
And I think you did not even look at my name because my name is OK. Is my name obviously masculine? OK, maybe my name is not obviously masculine, Basha. They didn't even look at my profile picture to see that, oh, this is a bloke and guys don't use these sorts of things. Therefore, let me not send this message to this person. So prospecting online, number one, who's your ICP? Search for them online. There are ways that you can do targeted searching to reach out to people.
Now, if you have a LinkedIn profile, because I'm talking about, you know, things going on on LinkedIn, even if you use the general LinkedIn, if you go to the search bar and you type in something, then underneath some tabs come out so that you can refine your search based on location, based on industry, based on job title, and I think based on employee count. So if you sell something and you think that your ideal customer,
your target audience is AGM of a bank in urban areas and the bank should have 100 employees, you can run that search on LinkedIn. You can, all you have to do is just use those tabs underneath and start taking an isolating, isolating. So you can select only Lagos and Abuja, you can select banking industry. You can select sorry, OK, No, Banking I think is a financial industry. I think maybe it'll be like finance. I don't know if you can break it down to that level of you know,
banking, insurance, blah, blah, blah. So I think will be a general term for financial industry. So just take finance and then number of employees, take that as well. Run your search. You will see a number of people, the number of posts, the number of organizations that match that criteria. Then you can start from there. At that stage, you can now start sliding into somebody's DM because you have done some targeting ahead of time,
prospecting one-on-one targeting. Who are we chasing after? There is no point in talking to the wrong people because there's very little chance that the wrong person is going to turn out to be the right kind of client. Now, the example that I like to give when I'm on the radio show is this. I don't eat fish. I don't like fish. My brother reacts violently to fish. I have also reacted violently to fish, you know, in the past,
skin lesions and things like that. So if you are a fish merchant, you cannot sell fish to me, full stop. I'm not part of your ICP. Now, if you know me enough, you will know that my wife loves fish. My mother loves fish. All the girls who grew up with me, you know, as my sisters and my cousins, they all love fish. Yeah. So it's unfortunate, you know, I don't eat fish. My brother doesn't eat fish but were born into a fish loving family.
So if you know that we're born into a fish loving family, yes, you can approach me and say how far now Christmas time don't reach shall be you go villa and as you're going just carry this catfish. Just carry like 15 head go and give mom say so. Yeah, we can have that kind of conversation. But until you've done your research to know about me, you can sell me fish. So that's the example that I give. So there's no amount of toasting that you would do, especially if you don't know me, You haven't asked me any questions around me on my dietary habits or what I
like or what I don't like or my loved ones. There's no amount of toasting that you do that will get me to buy fish. It ain't going to happen. So if you sell fish, if you're a fishmonger, you're a fish merchant. First thing around prospecting is ICP. Who are the people who like fish? What are the people who enjoy fish? Where do they hang out? How can I reach them when I'm talking to somebody? How can I find out if the person likes fish?
That simple. You don't just slide into people's DMS, you know, unnecessarily and start blanketing by my fish. My fish is the best I imported from Egypt, is the cheapest. It's this, it is that. It is, you know, it is South African cod. It is, you know, Vermilion from France. Sorry, Vermilion is that fish. And forgive me, I don't know what Vermilion is, Basha. You know, you don't just do this thing indiscriminately targeted.
That's how we do outreach. Online is the same thing targeted your LinkedIn, you can do targeted searching. You're not on LinkedIn. You can search business directories. I've tried that in the past. It works. I don't know how business directories get all their information, but all I can tell you is that it works. You go there, you run a search, somehow all the information is there. If I'm on one of those business directories for my old company,
I was shocked, but somehow my name was there. My brother's name was there because we're both directors of the company company and somehow our home address was there. I don't even know how to get that information. Man, that was scary. So only since then I've been more careful, but my name was there, my brother's name was there, home address was there, our two phone numbers was there. Even our company incorporation documents, I don't know how they got that one.
I have no idea what sharp business directory somehow to get that information. So back to the example you think you're ideal customer for your product or your service are people who work in financial institutions of a certain executive cater and who have you know 50 or 100 employees. You can run that search in business directories. It might not be that specific, like to know the number of employees, what you can go to business directories, Nigerian business directories online and narrow it down and say you only want to look at business in the agricultural sector or in the financial sector or in the, I
don't know, whatever sector. So targeting #1 So like I mentioned in my post, I put up an idea about how you look at somebody's profile. Then based on the things that they write about, based on the things they tweet about, based on the things they talk about, they post about, they make videos about they whatever. You can find one or two interesting ideas how you can slide into the person's DM and start trying to have a conversation.
And the example that I gave was I said, you know, how did I put it? You know, sometimes when I'm talking, I say, you know, XYZ product, FYZ service. So even on LinkedIn, that's how I write. I say XYZ project. So that's how I put it, XYZ project. And then I saw one guy now send me a message. You know how this people like to be smart? The guy said, what if there's no project? XYZI looked at this guy's hand. I say, should I reply this idiot?
Should I reply him? I said, no problem. Let me give you the benefit of a doubt. Maybe really the guy is just asking because obviously in my own opinion, if there is no information about project XYZ, you move along and find something else that we can talk about. But I said OK, no problem, no problem. So I answered the guy and that's why I said so I told together, yeah, there might be nothing about Project XYZ because yes,
it happens. It's not as if every single person who's on LinkedIn, on social media says this is my business, this is what we're doing, this is what we're currently trying out. This is where we are. You know, not everybody does that. But I told, I give an example about how in my prospecting activities, I was able to use some AI tools to find something interesting to talk about with the prospect. So this is what I did. I found the prospects website,
somebody that I want to do business with her. I found the person's website that is easy to find. Everybody puts their website on their LinkedIn, on their Instagram, on their whatever, even their WhatsApp handle. So long as the person is a business person, you will see the person's website there. So I took the website. I now uploaded the website into Google, Google's Notebook LM. Notebook is written together as one word NOTE and then book Bo OK, Notebook LM then LM in capital.
It's an AI tool. I now started prompting within notebook LM so that I could understand the prospects company and then the the the customers and market segments. You know the kind of people that they like to go after. Yes, you can get this information from looking at their website. But don't mind me, I'm just being lazy because AI is faster. So for me, it's a lot easier to just throw the website into notebook LM and then I start asking notebook LM some questions.
Then when I knew what the customers market segments were and now prompted within notebook LM to figure out the particular role that this my prospect, the person I want to reach out to, the particular role that they do in the company. Also try and figure out their, you know, day-to-day responsibilities. Because before I reach out to someone, I want to be sure that they have some responsibility for sales and marketing roles or that whatever job it is that they do, you know, it has some impact on sales and marketing.
Then as I was doing all this, I had my journal beside me. Now, if I say John, now that's even too fancy. Notebook, simple notebook. And this is how I get notebooks. Whenever somebody gives my wife a book, a notebook, a writing pad, a charter or whatever, because people give it, give them to hire a lot. You know, when you go for networking sessions, that's what you do. So since I got married, I've never had to buy a book by myself.
A notebook. Never, because people always give me her stuff. And then she comes home and she's like, oh, somebody give me another diary today. Allow. Yeah, give it to me. So looking at my desk right now, I currently have two Diaries. OK, One of them is for 2025. It doesn't matter that 2025 is over. When my current diary is full next year, I'll bring it out and I'll start using it as a journal. So. Journals and then of course my kids, you know, you buy notebooks for school, they don't use everything.
So I always have writing material. So writing material is always, always with me. By the way, if you are a business person who is responsible for sales, you should have a notebook with you at all times. You should be writing. Things down, Wonderful ideas come and go. You don't write it down. This is what will happen. Your kids will get. In a fight, you'll go outside, you separate the kids, you come back. And then you wonder, what was I
thinking about? You can't remember. Or your helpful comeback. She's in a bad mood. You guys have a quarrel by the time you're done, you know, wonder what that brilliant sales idea, what was I thinking about? You can't remember. Or your wife comes back and she's in a good mood, The kids are out. You guys have some quality time, if you know what I mean. And by the time you're done, you come back to your desk and you're wondering what was that brilliant sales idea that I had and you can't remember.
So if you have more than 2345 clients. And you're. Trying to chase now business every single day. Please have something where you can write these things down. You don't want to write? No problem, type it into your phone washer. We should be noting things down. So. After doing all these research in notebook LM, I got some ideas about possible conversation points and all this took me less than 5 minutes. Then after that.
I was able to get the person to agree to a phone call. We hooked up a phone call, and then we had a nice conversation. It's not as if we're going forward, but you know, this is business now. This is life. You don't end up doing business with someone, but at least one more person knows who you are. One more person knows what you do. You now know one more person. You're networked on the expand. Small, small. That's how we do it.
One step at a time, one day at a time. Rome was not built in a day. It's not as if your container should arrive today. It's not as if your millions will come now, now. So don't worry, just keep doing your own one step at a time, every single day. The result will come. We just keep on pushing it one day at a time. So that's it. Now I know some of these people like to complain a lot because I know them once I see their profile is a way that they are,
I know they like to complain. So I now started writing some other things to block the complaints that we have. So the next thing I put is look, do not complain that this thing takes too much time per prospect because I'm supposed to reach out to 10 prospects a day. So if I'm spending 5 minutes per prospect, that means I will spend 50 minutes just researching 10 people. So I told the. Guy, do not complain, this is what you do.
Just make sure that the prospect is worth the initial 5 minutes of research. There's some profiles that you see. Just looking at the profile you should know that this one no need. Even if I do the research, nothing good can come from this. So only bother. With this 5 minute research, it doesn't have to take 5 minutes because you can open up the website on your own, glance at it in 1 1/2 minutes and get a few impressions.
But either way, you make sure that you are looking at the profiles, looking at the websites, looking at the social media assets, whatever of people that if this thing should click. Ego makes sense. Don't complain about the level of time required. Remember that it is about being effective. Sorry, it's about being efficient, yes, not effective because you online Bros and online sisters, you like talking about being effective.
That's the reason why you broadcast messages. It's not about sending messages to 100 people and then 99 of them ignore you. Take your time, do small research, make sure this thing is targeted and if you only send 10 messages today is good. If you send 10 messages today and one person answered, it is better than sending 100 messages and only one person answered. Some of you say. What's the difference? The difference is one approach has much more efficient conversions.
The person who is talking who is sending 10 messages and one person replies. After a period of. Time when the person has sent 100 messages, 10 people would have responded. But the person who sends 100 messages and only gets one response, for him to get that same level of response, that is 10 people, he actually needs to reach out to 1000 people. And that's the difference. One person will send 100 messages and speak to 10.
Another person will send 1000 messages and then speak to 10. So do some small research, Make sure this thing is targeted slightly to somebody's DMDMS, with the hope that you have a good, nice quality conversation going on. Oh by the way, sorry, forgive me. DM means direct messages. So when you send. Somebody a message on Instagram, that is a direct message. If you send somebody a message on LinkedIn, that is a direct message.
For some reason if you send somebody a message in WhatsApp that is not considered a direct message. I don't know why. So they don't say that you sent you slide into Adm if it's WhatsApp or if it's Telegram or if it's e-mail. So I don't know why I didn't make these rules. Usha. You send a message on Instagram, sliding into the DMS. You send a. Message on LinkedIn, you're sliding into the DMS. So sorry. Forgive me that I'm only saying this 25 minutes in USHA.
Every single time you hear DM on this podcast or any podcast, that's just what it means. Direct message. Then I. Also told the guy. Go and subscribe to. My podcast so that you know how to carry on conversations and to do need analysis when people agree to a phone call because I know that the guy was also going to ask me that question now, OK, if somebody agrees to the phone call, agrees to the meeting, what kind of questions should I
ask? And then? The guy is not Nigerian, so I just put one more message there just to be. I'll put it to be safe. I told the guy that look, you listen to my podcast, there are lots of Nigerian expressions that you will not understand. So when you come across one of those expressions, just slide into my DM and I'll put you through. And then that's how I ended with that guy and. I was about to. Leave. I noticed that somebody.
Made a comment. After that, basically saying that, basically saying what I was thinking all along. Her name is Faith, Faith Mobasi. She's a copywriter. So thanks for responding. Also, thanks for listening to the podcast. And her response basically was if there's no comment about XYZ project and look at the profile now, you'll find something else interesting to to talk about, which is what I was thinking all along. Anyway.
Faith had a question. She wanted to know that when you look at somebody's DM like that, there's something interesting that you can talk about eventually, you know, can you in the process of sliding into somebody's DM, ask them? Whether they have a. Need for a product or service? Well, and the answer is yes, definitely. Now money will be fine. Eventually we'll get there. It's the same in relationships, you know, everyone knows, knows what you want.
Eventually you have to get to the point where you tell her that, you know, babe, we've been hanging out and you know, you know, we're a good company. But the feelings I'm having for you are feelings I've never had for anybody before. So when I saw you talking to Kunle yesterday, I didn't like it. So let's go official. Will you be my girlfriend? Or for. Those of us, we don't mature. You say, you know what, let's stop playing.
We know what we're all about. Will you be my wife? And you now drop down 1D. So yes, everybody knows we have to pop the question eventually. Do you have needs for a copywriter? You know, blah, blah blah. You have to pop the question, will you be my wife? Same thing. So. In our case, I said sure you can. If you. Want to be abrupt and direct about it? You know it's not a problem. The simple formula is #1 greetings. When you slide into somebody's DM, you suppose greet them.
Next. Compliments about their business. The reason why I'm saying compliments about their business is lots of people just lied in and say, hi, my name is Tavishima and I do so, so, so and so and so. I'm the greatest, I'm the best, I'm the whatever. And I'm doing the discount for only 50% off. So if you're interested, transfer 350,000 naira to me for us to get started. And if you're interested, click the link below to get started.
They just said that as a message. Meanwhile, you have not said a single thing about the other person's business, not even one. That's not how it works. We need to say something about the other person's business. So that's why nowadays I tell people I introduce it as a step compliments. Give them some compliments about their business. Oh, I notice you do so so so and so. Oh, good luck with this, this, this. I noticed you did that or fantastic job on the project.
I've been seeing you around brilliant work with something say something about the other person's business. Eventually we get to the Savior. You now say, I hope you don't mind me asking, how do you handle your challenges around content or how do you handle your challenges around writing copy for your business? Because in our case, she's a content and a copy specialist. So you see how you do it. First of all, appropriate greeting.
Then don't start talking about yourself. Relax, compliment these people a little bit. Now talk about their business. So like in. Relationships. You don't just show up to a young woman and say I'd like you marry me. No, it's not like that. Now some small talk and compliments go a long way. Compliment somebody I've been watching across the room, blah, blah, blah. I like the way you handled yourself. Oh, brilliant speech.
I've been following your social media for a while, you know, I see. I saw you on this, on that, you know, as in you understand compliments. Same thing in business. Compliment this person's business to talk about their own business. Eventually the conversation will flow small. Then for somebody who like faith, who's a copywriter, you will now say, I hope you don't mind me asking, by the way, how do you handle challenges around content?
Question mark, leave it like that. The person will talk from there, you know whether there's room to talk some more or not. Or do you have? Challenges for writing copy in your business. The conversation will flow a bit from there. You know, whether you can make a pitch or not. Those are problem based openers or question based openers. You know, something like that. But anyway, that's a pretty. Much not a very structured podcast for today, but some ideas about prospecting online.
And since I've been trying to get you all to use AI tools to be much more and I put it to work better, not just faster, but to work better, I figured. Let me also share today's example about how I use Google's Notebook LM to do research on people before before I reach out to them. Yeah, so that's it. And that's all for today. Thank you very much for listening. Remember, if you would love to connect with me, maybe you have questions, you have comments,
you have queries, then call me, text me. Send me a WhatsApp. Message on 08064662140. So thank you very much for your time and attention. I will catch you all some other time.