Don’t Just Post Content: How to Actually Find Customers

Hello, and welcome to the podcast Today, what we're going to do is we're going to be doing a case study, OK? We're going to be using a case study. I received a message recently from someone on LinkedIn and I think this would be a very good example to show here how our brothers and sisters who play actively on LinkedIn can get better with their outreach. OK, because I've done several WhatsApp episodes before where the case study we we we use is something from WhatsApp.

But today I'm going to discuss something uniquely from the LinkedIn perspective. However, as usual, just bear in mind whenever we make these episodes and we say something about WhatsApp, you will find that some of those ideas can be applied to LinkedIn or whatever it is that we discussed in LinkedIn. You will find that in broad general principles should be able to apply to Instagram as well. So even if you don't have a LinkedIn account, there's still going to be useful stuff that you can learn from today's episode on how to do your outreach better.

So for those of you who are discovering the show for the very first time, outreach just means any kinds of activities or strategies that we come up with for running after or for reaching out to our potential customers, our potential clients. Because in the last, you know, 2-3 decades, lots of us who have gotten into business have gotten used to this idea that we should just sit down on the Internet, put out helpful content, and then people will start running after us.

So those are much more inbound forms of marketing. So content marketing, inbound forms of growing your business. So, but that's not the only way to grow your business. There are more outbound ways of growing your business. Outbound just means any kind of business philosophy or marketing philosophy where you're going after people and chasing people. And so outreach is outreach is part of that family, if I can put it that way.

Outreach is part part of that way of doing business. Washa. If you're doing anything where you take responsibility for running after your customers, you're doing outreach. So if you're going out to go and drop Flyers, yeah, that's outreach. If you're sending messages to people in their inbox to try and see if they'll buy from you, that's outreach. If you're going out to try and track people down in their homes or in their offices or in their business sites or whatever, that is outreach.

And I would strongly recommend that we should all be doing one form of outreach or another because you will find that whenever you engage in business outreach, you're not only growing your business, but you're developing yourself as a person because outreach demands that you learn some really, really interesting skills. So for those of us who like meeting people in person, you know, going to people's offices, making phone calls, you'll find that doing business outreach that way forces you to become confident.

It forces you to become articulate. It forces you to work on your people skills, you know, things like that. So even if not from a business perspective, I recommend that we all should be doing outreach. Don't just sit down behind your keyboard and assume that because you're putting up helpful content that you're going to be able to grow your business. OK. And then, OK, apologies. I'm making today's recording at home, so there's going to be some noise in the background.

Oh, by the way, for those of you listening for the first time, my name is Tavishima Ayede. I'm a former lawyer turned business consultant. And what I do here on this podcast almost every day is I come here with some business goodness. We try and show, we try and play with ideas about how we can make our businesses better and how we can grow our revenue. So that's the focus of the podcast. Now, if you'd love to connect with me because you have particular business problems you'd like me to have a look at,

you want me to answer one or two questions for you, then you can call me, send me a text message or a WhatsApp message on 08064662140. I love meeting listeners of the show, so reach out. Don't worry, don't be shy. If you've been listening for three years, reach out. If you've been listening for three months, reach out. If you've been listening for three days, reach out. If you've been listening for three minutes, please don't reach out.

Finish the podcast episode. Be sure that you think you and I are going to vibe very well first before you call because there's some people who you know, listen to half an episode and then you call and then anyway, let me just leave it like that. So if you've only been listening for three minutes, I beg finish the episode, then you can reach out. OK, so now before we go into examining this particular piece of outreach that I received on LinkedIn, a few definitions.

Some of you are going to say definition on how why are you defining LinkedIn? If you're one of those people and you think that everybody knows LinkedIn, my guy or my babe, I have some shocking news for you. Lots of Nigerians do not even know about LinkedIn, not even talk of being on LinkedIn. So for those of you who are regular listeners, you will know about the speaking event I had. I can't remember. No, I think that was two years ago, I thought last year or two years ago, I can't remember when I was speaking for the NBC,

that's the Nigerian Bottling Corporation that the people who produce Fantas Pride, you know, and all of that 5-Alive, you know, all those, all that good stuff, all that good sugary stuff. So if you have a sweet tooth like me, then you're definitely a customer of NBC. You've been chugging their products every day. By the way, you should not be drinking Coke every single day. You know, a Coke once in a while is all right.

If you're drinking every day, you are wrong. If you don't believe me, go ask your doctor. So then the session was on how to use artificial intelligence to grow your businesses and then how to use artificial intelligence to boost your career. So, so we got to the point where we're talking the people about LinkedIn. And then one young man came kept on asking me that this linked linked that you're talking about linked linked.

So that's why I decided to engage the guy. And apparently I hadn't heard of LinkedIn before, which is why even though I was saying LinkedIn, because, you know, The thing is up on the slide now, you know the guy, they say linked. So I see a show of hands now who here knows about LinkedIn? I was shocked. I was shocked. I would say close to, I don't know, 6075% of the hall had not heard of LinkedIn before. Not to talk of even, you know,

having an account on LinkedIn, say like you have the account, you just don't sign in about 6075% don't even have. I never even heard of it. And then since I've been doing the podcast, you know, it's the same thing. You know, some people we talk blah, blah, blah and say, oh, what's your LinkedIn handle? Let me send you a connection request. So I'm not on LinkedIn. I say for real. I say, no, I'm not on LinkedIn. OK, Like you're there, but you never use it.

No, I never opened the account. So, OK, but you're a career person, you're in business. He said yeah, no, I just never opened the account. So there are lots of people like that. So you do not have to be on LinkedIn, I repeat, to grow your career or to grow your business in Nigeria in 2026, as at the time of this recording, you do not have to be on LinkedIn. It'll be by it's not by force, by force at all. In fact, I'm growing my business.

I shut down my Facebook account a long time ago. I shut down my Instagram account a long time ago for So for those of you who are regular listeners and who have been trying to find me because once in a while somebody reaches out to me, they say, oh boy, how far now I define you since like your podcast is dope and you know, thanks for this and blah, blah, blah, like, you know, on, you know, on Instagram what's going on, you know, on TikTok.

So no, I'm not on Instagram. No, no, on TikTok, I shut down everything. So when it comes to social media, no, be by force by force. But I want you guys to understand that there's a categorical difference between, you know, chilling on Facebook, chilling on TikTok, chilling on Instagram and all these other platforms. Because LinkedIn is primarily for people who are interested in business development or career development primarily.

Of course, you know, from there it spills over into personal development as well. So if you're looking for people who are personal development nuts, you know, you're into this whole thing of making yourself better, you know, people, people keep talking about improving yourself 1% every day and all that. So if you're one of those improve yourself 1% everyday kind of people, you're one of those upwardly social, what's that expression again?

Socially upwardly mobile lobby. Like you want to grow in society, improve your ranks, growing your business, growing your career. Yeah, those are the kind of things that suit you every day. Then I recommend that you should be on LinkedIn because it's a social media platform where the primary audience is career development or business development. So you will not be, what's the word, you will not be disappointed if you're on the platform.

See, OK, let's make this impractical. Let me open my LinkedIn now. So let me so that you guys appreciate what is I'm talking about. For those of you who are not on LinkedIn, of course, it also depends on who you follow, but let me just open my LinkedIn and then I'll now show you guys the kind of things you see on LinkedIn. All right, so cool. Now, the very first post that came up on my LinkedIn as I opened it, startup and funding opportunities, that's the very first post.

So there's somebody here who is the founder and who is into talent acquisition and the guy put up a post on startup and funding opportunities. In other words, if you're a startup founder in Nigeria and you want to look for investors, you're trying to look for funding for your business. The very first post, that's what came up. No problem. May I just scroll so you guys understand what I'm saying? For those of you who are not convinced, then the next post was on LinkedIn marketing.

So you know how you can grow your business on LinkedIn. Then let me continue. Then another post from someone who writes about African tech. She's talking about corporate blunders and she's talking about how PayPal is trying to re enter into Nigeria. So PayPal is a payment platform and you know, I'm not really on on into online payments. So I don't know how PayPal went away in Niger. It'd be like say they goof somehow and then they left.

But then now that other people are here, like Pay Stack and all these other companies, they're trying to come back. Again, seeing that there's money, they're trying to come back. So somebody's writing about all that kind of stuff. Then there's a post, another post after that where people are talking about how migrants in the UK send home $24.5 billion to their home country. Then another post about job opportunities online, and then another post about finance.

And then another post about, let me see, I had term sheets. Now. A term sheet is when you're trying to raise money from an investor and you guys have spoken about, you guys have spoken about how much money you need and this and this and that and that. The time sheet just basically is where you and the person who's giving you money, where you guys start trying to hash out exactly what the obligations are going to be. How much money am I giving you?

How much or how much percentage for your company am I getting? You know, things like that. So I've closed my LinkedIn, but from this brief, from this small scrolling that I've scrolled right. If you're interested in business, if you're interested in career, you're interested in self-employment, you're interested in whatever. I'm telling you that LinkedIn is a different platform. Those topics that I called now, there's no way you open your Instagram and these are the kind of posts that you're seeing in your Instagram.

No way. I'm willing to bet my left. There is no way that that is what you're seeing on your, on your, your social media. The same thing if you're on TikTok. So that's why I think it's a good idea for folks to be on LinkedIn. By the way, they're not paying me. So don't worry. No be like, it's not like they give me Commission or anything. So nothing like that. Anyway, it's been 10 minutes. So let me go straight into the outreach.

So somebody sent a message and the message reads like this. The message says Dear Tavishima, XYZ Companies helps HR leaders offer solar and inverter solutions to staff via salary deduction or corporate schemes. As the sole distributor for Luminous and Genus, we handle everything from installation to long term maintenance. We would love to be an approved partner for your staff. Are you open for a quick chat about how this could work for your employees?

Best regards. And then of course the person's name Marketing Operations Manager. So I repeat, in case I read it too fast, basically what the message is saying is these guys send me a message, guys say Tarish Shima, how you doing? And the person told me that what they do is they offer solar and inverter solutions to staff of people that have companies and that they do it through salary deduction or they do it through cooperative schemes.

And of course, that's a very good idea. This actually makes sense. You know, this whole high purchase, you know the equipment is worth. Maybe the equipment is worth, you know, 10 mil and then the person buys it. But then through you, the employer, and then you'll be deducting, I don't know, maybe 5-5. OK, NO5500K per month. That's harsh. OK, let's say 3300K every single month from the person's salary until they finish paying the 12

million for the something. You know, that's just an example. So this particular company that reached out to me, what they do is they handle the installation of these solar systems and inverter systems. They also handle the maintenance of these systems. And so they were telling me, Tavishima, that they would like to be an approved partner for my staff. And I wanted to know if they could have a quick chat with me about how this thing will work with their employees.

So if you're listening now, you're thinking, you know, bad. Like the idea is not bad at all. It's not bad at all at all, at all to reach out to an employer to say this is what we sell. If we could be a good partner for your employees, you know, they can sign up and you could deduct from the account small, small, small, small, small, you know, until they pay up so you can say it's a good welfare something. So actually it's a very good idea.

It's a very, very good idea. And for people that come up with these kinds of ideas and for people who can't, who do this kind of business outreach, we suppose clap for them is good because they're not just sitting at home and hoping for business growth. They're going out and they're trying to grow the business. So we suppose cloud for them. So well done for the guy that sent the message, well done, actually was a babe.

So for the babe, we send the message, you know, well done, Nice, nice, nice. But of course, I have some comments and those of you who listen regularly will know where it is now coming from. Now, First off, the person's targeting was wrong, very, very wrong, because I do not run an organization with employees. My LinkedIn profile does not say that I run an organization with employees. You can click through people's profiles and see, you know,

where they work. And if you click on the organization, if there's an organization page, you can see how many employees are there and stuff like that. So if you go through my profile, you'll see that I do not have employees. I do not run an organization with employees, so their targeting was wrong, very wrong. Now, this is the reason why I said today's episode is going to be about LinkedIn in particular, because LinkedIn has this advanced search feature on platforms.

You can search, yes, but LinkedIn has search options that are kind of advanced. You can go to LinkedIn and you can search for companies of a certain size. If you want to go to LinkedIn and search for companies based in Abuja that have 100 employees or more, you can go and search for it like that. You can't search on WhatsApp that way. You can't search on Instagram that way that show me companies here that have 100 employees or more.

You can't search on TikTok that way. You can't go to TikTok and say TikTok should show you companies that have 100 employees or more. You can't. Sorry. One moment there's something I have to attend to and I'll be right back. OK, sorry about that. Like I said, I'm making today's recording at home and something needed my attention briefly. So with LinkedIn, you can do advanced search. You can search for companies with 100 employees or more.

You can even say that you want to search for Nigerian companies that have a welfare department or have a human resources department or something like that. But what I'm trying to say is this, for a company like this one, with this kind of campaign that they're putting out, they actually could have spent some time. The problem is people don't like to invest time. You just want to send one message and broadcast it across,

you know, 5000 people in one day. And then you go and tell your, your auger, assuming you're the marketing manager, you go and tell them you put it in your report that all this week we sent out 5000 messages. It's not just about, you've sent out 5000 messages. It's not about the number of messages. We want to send out plenty of messages, but with a high likelihood that the messages are going to reach people who will be interested in what it is that we have.

Then when we get the target incorrect, to be sure that we are reaching people who might be interested in what it is that we have. We want to craft these messages in such a way that we increase the likelihood that somebody would read these things and that the person will act upon them. That is where we get our money from. So if you send 5000 messages, but then 4000 of them get to the wrong people, my friend, you are wrong because 4000 of those messages have gotten to the wrong people.

People who don't need them, people who don't have an interest, you're wrong. Now for the remaining 1000 that hits the mark, the right people if because of how you crafted it or whatever, the chances that people, let's say only 500 people open it, This problem out of that 500 who open it, let's say your copy is not correct. Let's say a copy. It's the text that you use in your messages or in your advertising copy. So sorry in your, in your advertisement or whatever it is.

So if the copy is wrong, the text is wrong, and now those 500 people that read it, maybe only 100 take action, then my friend, you are wrong. You have done a campaign, you have spent money to send 5000 message messages and you only got 100 people to take action You're wrong. You're wrong. So if your moves are on LinkedIn and that's why I say today I'm focusing on LinkedIn. Because LinkedIn has advanced search capabilities, even on the free account, See if I want to find companies in Lagos that have 100 employees and that are involved in, what can I say now that are involved in, gosh, I

don't know, agriculture, I can find it even without a paid account. I can just go to LinkedIn search and start typing in there and you get filters, use the filters and we can narrow things down and I'll be able to find companies in Lagos that have 100 employees or more that I evolved in agriculture. So with these kinds of search capabilities, if you're involved, if you're on LinkedIn, excuse me, your messages should not be off like this.

It should not be off like this. What these people did was they just went to LinkedIn and I was like, oh, anybody that has a company, let's send them this message. No, some companies are one man show, one woman gang or some companies are only four or five people. I doubt that a company that is only four or five people will have will be interested in this kind of opportunity that is being advertised. I doubt they can handle this kind of thing.

So these people who sent this message, what they should have done was first of all, use the advanced search features in LinkedIn to make sure that they are targeting companies with, I don't know, I'm not a professional. So let me just guess. I'm not a professional when it comes to these sorts of things. Maybe 50 employees, maybe 50 employees and above, 50 employees and above. And a company that has a human resource department, you know,

to tackle these kinds of things. Because if you send this kind of message to a company and even if they have maybe 50 employees, but somehow, you know, 'cause you know how family businesses can be now it's a family business. And then, excuse me, they no get, you know, personal departments, they don't really have admin, they don't really have human resources. I mean, like who's going to process all this thing 'cause it's going to be a lot of work.

Processing this thing is going to be a lot of work. So if it's a family business, you know, like you know, mommy, daddy, the kids and then a couple of employees, you know, by the time you count everybody, you know, 50, but really they don't get personnel department, they don't get HR. This kind of thing is not going to work. So they should have searched by employee size and they should have searched by business departments or functions.

Then one thing to consider at the top of the episode I spoke about how we should be doing outreach and this is good that this is outreach, but it's not just enough to target people like this on LinkedIn. Sorry to send these kind of messages on LinkedIn because for those of you who have paid accounts on LinkedIn and these people do I think they have paid accounts? Well, this means I was guessing, but it look like a company we get back like a company that is seriously paid up.

They could also try and get phone numbers of the companies because cold calling that is calling people who are not your friends, you guys haven't met before, things like that. When you blend these kinds of messages with cold calling, you'll find that your effectiveness goes up. So let's just say I was in the company that could take advantage of this sort of thing. Let's say I'm a bank manager, branch manager at Zenith Bank for instance.

OK, because we will definitely be able to take your take this kind of do business with these sorts of people. If I see that this message is my LinkedIn and I'm like, OK, interesting. But I never reply. And then two days later I receive a phone call. You know, I was like, oh, OK, that was you guys. You never know. So effectiveness goes up. So I think they should also try to get more details from LinkedIn, you know, phone numbers if possible, because they should just be trying to combine different kinds of outreach methods that increases the level of effectiveness.

Because for a lot of you, a lot of us rather when we're trying to grow our businesses, we, we just pick one method and we don't realize that we suppose combine, you know, combine. So like the fellow that I spoke about who stayed outside my children's school and started handing, handing out Flyers, you know, for back to school and you know, all of that, excuse me, back to school, you know, bags, textbooks, all these sorts of things.

You'll find that people who just go around dropping Flyers, but don't just drop Flyers only, you know, if you drop Flyers. How about going into the school to talk to the school school administrator? Maybe you can show up during PTA meetings and actually make a presentation before the parents. So you don't just try only one outreach method. You combine methods and then you see that your effectiveness increases. So if you're that kind of vendor, like the person who are sharing back to school Flyers outside my son's school, you'll find that if you're sharing Flyers, then you're successful.

If you're sharing Flyers and then you're combining it with trying to enter into the school and talking to the admin so that you can get on stage during PTA, you'll find that you'll even be much more effective. So OK, another problem with the outreach that these people did was the message started with them. If you remember correctly, they started talking about them. And it never is a good idea whenever you're doing business outreach to start your message or to start your phone call or to start your text message by saying, good morning, Sir, this is me.

I am the greatest. I am the best. I am the brightest. I am the this, I am the that, all this, me, me, me, me, me. This. I am, I am, I am. We, we, we, we, we. It doesn't. It doesn't move the needle because in the beginning nobody cares about you. When you show up in people's inboxes or when you call them for the first time, most people are thinking, who is this guy? How did he get my phone number? And what the hell do they want to talk about?

So when you start off saying, oh, this is me, I'm the best, I'm the brightest, I'm the this, I'm like, you're wasting time. Get to the point, get to the point. But of course, some of you say I'm Tavishma, we suppose use preamble now as when you meet people, you can't just get straight to the point like that. You suppose, you know, use a preamble. Yes, use a preamble, but in this case your preamble should be something about the recipient,

something about the target. So they should have said something about me in the message. You should have started with things about me. And by the way, this is one reason why people don't like doing outreach this way, because you can see it takes time and you have to do small research. People would rather copy and paste and then blast the message to 5000 people at once. Well, slow down, take the longish route. What you do actually is just copy and paste and then you edit one or two things to to to adapt it to the recipient.

That's the way forward. So like in this case, instead of just launching and saying what they said, they could have put a paragraph in the beginning about, sorry, excuse me on the scroll through my phone. I drafted some sample responses. Sorry. Some samples. Like how I would have done it, you know, if it was me. Where is it? OK, I can't find it. So let me freestyle. So they could have said something like, oh, I've noticed that XYZ company, that's the company they're reaching out to.

They're gonna say, oh, hello. I've noticed. Hello Mr. Tavishma, notice that you're with XYZ Company and we'll see that XYZ Company is an ethical company that cares about the welfare of it's employees unlike most Nigerian companies. So when you start off the messaging and you're giving a preamble about the person that you are sending the message to, you can see that it is about the person and because it is about the person, they will continue to read.

So assuming I was that kind of company and the message starts with me like that. Now, hello, Mr. Tara Schumer. We've seen your company. We noticed that you care about the welfare of your employees. Of course, I'll continue to listen. Now you're talking about me. You're stroking my ego. I will listen. So please stop sending messages, whether WhatsApp, Instagram, Telegram, whatever, and you're opening whatever is I am with so, so and so company.

I am the greatest. I am the latest. I am the brightest. I am the cheapest. I am the fact. No, not me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me. Not I, I, I and not we, we, we, we are the best company in Nigeria. We received the award for best company in so, so, so and so for 2025. No, nobody cares about you yet. Mention the company name in the outreach that you are reaching out to talk about their own company and you increase the likelihood that the person is going to read.

Also psychologically, remember I told you that what we're doing here is copy and paste. So it's the same message everybody's received. You know, we just copy and paste, then we change the, the intro paragraph for them and then you send. So you, you know, it's copy and paste. The person who is receiving it will get the impression that this was an individual message. Don't feel as if, oh, it actually is me that they were sending this thing to.

Well, of course, you that sent it, you know that what you did is copy, paste and then edit. So you want to send out 5000 messages at the same time. Relax, slow down. If you do copy, paste, edit, copy, paste, edit. Who knows, you might be able to send maybe 100 messages today. But at least increasing the likelihood that, number one, it will get to the right people #2 the people will open it #3 they will read it and #4 hopefully they might take action.

That's how it works. So it's not about how many messages did I send, It's about the messages that I sent. Did they get to the right person? Did we compose it? Did we craft it? Did we write it in such a way that the person will actually open it and then read it? If they read to the end, the thing we want them to do next, what is the chances that the people are actually going to do the thing and take action on the thing?

That's what we want to do. So Speaking of taking action, their call to action now is quite good for those of you who are listening for the first time. Call to action just means the thing you want people to do next. Every message you send should have a call to action. That's one mistake that Nigerian businesses have. So let's say you, gosh, what can I think of now? OK, I just had a phone call this morning from someone.

She's a candidate, a candidate. How will I put it now? Job seeking candidates, have you? One of my clients is trying to employ salespeople right now. And so I was on the interview panel and one of the people who was on the, one of the people who applied for the post, she called out to me earlier. And then the way we wrapped up the conversation was she said if I haven't heard from you by how did I put it? What was it again?

OK, that's not an example of a call to action because what she said was, if I haven't heard from you by 2:00 PM, would it be OK for me to call you back, Sir? And I said sure, that that'll be fine. And then that's how the conversation ended. So it's not really a call to action because she has proposed what is going to happen next. But Shar, what I'm trying to say is that a lot of us were in the habit of just saying something and leaving it hanging.

We're not worried about next steps. So in this case, this very young lady, this sharp lady, she's a very correct babe. She said, OK, Sir, thank you very much for the feedback, blah, blah, blah. If I have not heard from you by 2:00 PM today, would it be OK for me to call you back then? And I said, oh, sure, that's fine. She's worried about the next step. She's trying to hook up the next step. So that is OK. That's not a call to action.

OK, bad example. By the way, let me continue. So call to action, basically just what you want people to do after the read your message, once they see your advertisements. OK, yes, Instagram advertising now. So on Instagram advertisements, you will notice that for some of them, by the time you see the image or you watch the video at the bottom of the screen, you see something pulsing or something flashing and you see that that thing.

Sometimes it says click here to follow, sometimes it says DMDM For more information. And then what is the other option? You can say click here to follow. You can say DM For more information. What else? Or you can say like and share. So those things at the bottom of the advertising campaign, that is a call to action. You want people to see your advertisement and you want them to either like and share. By the way, I think that is the worst.

That is the absolute worst. Why am I paying money just for people to like and share my my page? I think that's the worst. So if you're advertising on Instagram, please don't, don't, don't select like and share as a call to action. Very bad, very, very bad. OK, well, not very, very bad. But for me, I'm all about growing sales. Then you can another one can be click here to send DM, you know, that sort of thing. And I think that one is the best because if people are in your DM

now you guys can actually start having conversations like I end up conducting good business with somebody. You could another call to action could be, you know, click here to send the WhatsApp message. That one is good because they've leave. They will leave Instagram all together and then once they click on it, they'll be inside my WhatsApp inbox and then I'll have an opportunity to talk with them direct, direct, then another one, which is what else?

Anyway, you get the point, all those things that you want people to do after reading your e-mail or after watching, reading your advertisement or after reading your e-mail, that is a call to action. So now these people, they had a good call to action because they were not asking for the sale directly. The problem that lots of Nigerian business people make is they ask for the sale immediately. Jose, good morning Sir. This is this is what we do.

We're the absolute best. We can help your employees to acquire solar. So if you want to buy from us today, reply yes or if you want to buy from us today, call this number. Like, I mean, relax. Asking for the order directly is not a good call to action because it requires too much of A commitment. You're a total stranger. Nobody knows you. This is the first time that they're seeing you, you know, never heard of you before.

So asking for the order, asking for the sale immediately is too much. So these people, they, they, what they did was good because the, the call to action was that they said, let's have a quick chat. That's what they said. Now you're interested in the quick chat. Now that is good. Well, the problem is quick chat is audible language. And it's not really clear what people mean when they say quick chat. And trust me, I can tell you this from personal experience,

because you know, I can be quite, what's the word, I can be quite fancy. So there are times when I'm talking to someone, I'm like let's hop on, let's let's hop on the phone for a quick chat. And then some people reply back and say quick chat, question mark, question mark, question mark, question mark. They don't know what I mean by quick chat. So yes, it should seem obvious, but some expressions that we were expressions.

So asking people for a quick chat like people don't know. So let's be clear in the Nigerian context, if you want them to have a meeting with you, say you want a meeting. If you want them to have a phone call with you say phone call, or if you don't want to be that direct and ask for a meeting or ask for a phone call, you can, you know, they could have now said ask them. Would you be interested in exploring how our company can help your employers?

You know, something, something, something so that would you be interested in exploring how like that's, that's OK. Somebody cannot reply and say, OK, what does it entail? Then from there you can continue chatting with them and then maybe try and hook up the meeting, try and hook up the phone call. But my own opinion, don't use quick chat. Lots of people are using quick chat. I don't think Niger is ready for quick chat.

Another one is discovery call and people will say, can we have a quick chat or a quick 15 minute discovery call because lots of us who are listening to this podcast are interested in sales. All right, we know what discovery call means, but most of the people that we're reaching out to, we do not know what discovery call means. If you don't believe me, when you next, when next you know your home IO chill with Momsy now.

Tell mom said, oh, mom say I'm trying to grow my business. This is a strategy I've been using and I've been trying to get people to have a 15 minute discovery call with me. I can assure you your mom's will say sorry, what have a what you said discovery call. Your mom will ask you what does discovery call mean? That's a very good test. Or ask your spouse or your boyfriend or your girlfriend, if they're not in business, you just tell them just surrounded by them.

Or I've been doing this strategy and you know, as part of my strategy, I'm trying to get people to have a 15 minute discovery call. Your babe will ask you. Sorry, discovery call. What is that? Your boyfriend will ask you. Sorry, babe Novak, it's not as if I'm not listening to you. But you say discovery. Discovery what? So quick chat, stop using that phrase. Nigerians don't know what it is. Discovery call, stop using that phrase because even in America,

self, ordinary people don't know what discovery call is. So we know what discovery call is because we are in sales, we're trying to learn marketing and business development. So don't use discovery call, just ask for a phone call or ask for a meeting or say, would you be interested in or, you know, something like that, something that ordinary people will understand. Once you say quick chat, you're losing people. Once you say discovery call, in fact, you're even confusing people.

The average person here, discovery call, like, OK, what does that mean? Does that mean we'll do phone call? Does that mean we'll do video call? Does that mean we'll do Zoom? What is it? OK then? But the major mistake that I think they made was they assumed that I was going to be interested. First of all, when you reach out to someone to do business, don't assume that they're already interested in what it is that you do.

You should ask first. So we won't reach out to people. What we should try to do is to ask if they're interested. It is only when they're interested and then we try to continue the conversation. What we're trying to do is not just to pile everything into that first message. The first time we reach out to total strangers, we're trying to find out are they interested? And then if they're interested, we'd start drawing them into conversation.

And now I found the things that I rewrote. So this is my own rewrite. So subject Olives Oriental Beauty. Yes, that's the name of the company that I came up with. I manufactured the company, it's called the Olives Oriental Beauty. So in my so my subject, my subject, I titled it as supporting the Olives Oriental Beauty team. This is 1 tip, 1 trick that works sometimes if you use the person's name in the subject or if you use the company name in the subject, increases the the chance that somebody's going to open it.

Don't use your own name. If you're sending the WhatsApp message, sorry if you're sending the LinkedIn message, if you're sending the e-mail message and then the subject, you put your name there. XYZ solar company, like nobody knows who XYZ Solar Company is now. You know that that's your company name, but the person doesn't know. So it shows up like that in the inbox. Some people just click, click, click, click, click, select all,

move to spam or click, click, click, select all, delete, put their own company name. So for me, that's all I've done supporting the Olives Oil beauty team. And then this is the message I came up with dear at Tinuke Danladi. I made that up by the way, not a real person or if you're a real person at Tinuke Danladi, Sorry, I didn't know you were real. I just came up with the name. So there at Inuke Danlandi, I've noticed that your company,

Olives Oriental Beauty is an ethical one and cares about its employee welfare and you guys have exemplary staff benefit programs unlike most Nigerian companies. So that's the introduction. I spoke about them then. Now remember we sell solar power. I'm pretending to be this company that sells solar and inverter. So next thing we slide into how I put it. Now we're trying to figure out if they're interested. OK, so the next paragraph is trying to get whether interested and also to delve into the problem.

So I continue because the National Grid has collapsed in February, March, September, December of 2025, and already twice in January 2026. Would you be interested in exploring how you could offer solar and inverter solutions to your staff through cooperative schemes? So let me break it down. I just realized that, you know, when you read it, it sounds somehow sorry. When you read it out loud, it sounds somehow when you read it as in using your eyeballs, it sounds, sounds different.

OK, so basically this is the thrust of the message that I, I just composed so subjects supporting Olives Oriental Beauty team because I'm trying to get the people to open the message. And if they see their company name, their chances are they'll open it. And then I start off by saying dear Atinuke Danladi, assuming I have done my research and I'm sending it to the right person within the company. And I start off by saying that I

noticed that their company is very good and they treat their company, They treat their staff very well because they have welfare programs. So that's the initial toasting that I'm giving them. I said, dear Tinu Care, you people have a wonderful company. You are treating your staff very well because of the welfare programs that you have. So that's toasting Part 1. Then the Part 2 is where I will now slide into why I'm messaging them to now say a Tinu Care, see ya, because National Grid has been collapsing anyhow.

Last year the National Grid collapsed February, March, September, December, and then January 2026 National Grid has collapsed again. Your staff must be having a hard time, you know, So how about looking at the program with my own company where we offer solar solutions to your staff through a cooperative scheme. Is this something you're interested in? So that's the scope of the message that I came up with. Now, because I crafted this one of my own and was kind of long,

I decided to throw it into Gemini so that Gemini can re edit and make it shorter and stuff like that. But because we've already done 45 minutes, I don't want to read what Google German I came up with. But basically, yeah, Google German. I came up with some interesting suggestions. He gave me option one, option two, option three. He gave me 3 different shorter options that we could have used. So I'll say if you're trying to do outreach, I'll say if you're trying to do outreach, yeah,

this is the approach that you should if you're on LinkedIn. So first of all, you need to target go and use their advanced search features. Make sure that the messaging is getting to the right kind of companies in the 1st place. Because if it is not even getting to the right kind of company, the right kind of person, then it doesn't matter what you put there. The wrong person is never going to buy from us. I repeat, the wrong person will never buy from us.

So if we do not send the message and make sure that he gets to the right person, gets to the right inbox, get to the right WhatsApp message, get to the right e-mail inbox, get to the right whatever. If it's the wrong person that is receiving it, we will not get good business from it. Then in the particular messages that you send, make sure you say something about them, toast them, flatter them, say something about them, give them the impression that this message was tailored, targeted to them.

And then the call to action you should be asking for at the end of the day is just don't use fancy words, don't use a quick chat, don't use discovery call, don't use none of those things. Lots of Nigerians still don't know, don't know what that means yet. Then let's see what else OK, I think that's it pretty much let me just stop there. So that's it thank you very much for your time and attention If you would like to reach out, you can call me send me a text message or WhatsApp message on 08064662140.

So if in your company you're trying to get some outreach going, you're trying to target companies on LinkedIn or trying to target companies through e-mail or some other way, and you have some questions, you have some concerns. You don't know whether this your e-mail campaign, whether you guys have thought it, thought of it right, thought of it well, you don't know whether the campaign is going to be effective. You want to know how to map out the different stages in the campaign.

You want to be able to figure out what an effective call to action is going to be for this, your e-mail campaign, your messaging campaign, whatever it is, reach out, call, send me a text message or a WhatsApp message on 08064662140 and let's have a chat. Don't worry, if you're looking for free advice, I have no problem with giving free coaching. Just make sure that you say so explicitly in the first message or in the first phone call.

If you're looking for free coaching, I'm open to that. But if you want to, if you want free coaching, I will answer one question and one question only. But as we talk, if it becomes clear that we have to do a deep dive into some of these issues, then we have to book a proper consulting session. Now the different options, we can have monthly engagements, we can have weekly engagements, we can have daily engagements, we can even have hourly engagements.

There's something for every different price point. Even those people who say I don't get money, if you don't get money, no problem. That's what the free coaching session is about. So call, send me a text message or WhatsApp message on 0806466 2140. And if you're one of those people who just wants to reach out to say what's up, I appreciate that as well. So those of you who like to reach out and say, hey, what's up now?

We're looking for you all over the place, blah, blah, blah. This it is dot dot, dot. Yeah, reach out. I'd like to know who you are, like to find out why you listen to the podcast, but to see what extra questions you have. And it's things like that that informs the kind of topics that we talk about over here on the podcast. So that's it. And that's all for today. Thank you very much for listening. I will catch you all some other time.