Sliding into the DM is a "Boss Move": Why the Pro Always Reaches Out First

A lot of us Nigerian business owners or salespeople have profiles on social media because we want to be accessible to our audiences. We want to be accessible to our potential customers, our potential clients. Now, sometimes people who are checking us out on social media leave comments on our posts and in our timeline. And unfortunately, some of us Nigerian business people are not responding to those comments appropriately and that is costing U.S. business, it is costing us money.

So we have to learn how to deal with comments on social media properly. Now, I've done lots of episodes where I've already spoken about what to do when people leave negative comments on your social media. So that's not what we're going to tackle today. We're going to look at situations where people make comments like how much, what's the cost of your service, you know, things of that nature and how best to respond to it on social media.

Because for lots of people, understandably, if someone hits you up in the timeline and they say how much you don't want to put a price there. I'm not saying it's good, I'm not saying it's bad. I'm just saying that most Nigerian business people do not want to put their price in the comments. And I understand, but there's a much more appropriate way to deal with that. Now before we get straight to the meat of the matter today, if you would love to connect with me, you can call me, send me a text message or a WhatsApp message on 08064662140.

Also, if you're interested in my 15 minute sale audit or business audit, you can WhatsApp me on the same number 08064662140. And if you'd like to join my WhatsApp channel, just send me a WhatsApp message on the very same number and I will hook you up so that you can be part of my WhatsApp channel so that whenever there's updates and things of that nature, I will let you know. Then. Apologies for the noise in the background because I'm recording today's, making today's recording at home.

The house is currently being cleaned, so there's going to be some noise in the background and the kids are home because it's holidays. So expect some noise in the background as well. And then of course, you know, holiday mode, so all the neighbors are home, you know, leading up to easy stuff. So expect to hear some noise in the background. All right, so this is not about my family situation, so let's get straight into it.

Now, how to deal with comments on social media. Now, this is the scenario that I had in mind. Someone put up a post a very long time ago. Again, this is another one, one of those things I found in my screenshots of someone that I tried to help years ago. So the fellow put up something, I can't remember exactly what the post was, but the thing was in the comments, somebody wrote a comment and the person wrote what is the likely cost of the service?

So let me repeat, since in the last episode I used an example of a window, sorry, not window house cleaning services or office cleaning services. Let's stick to that. So let's say you run industrial cleaning services, you clean offices or you clean factories or you clean whatever. And so you put up a post and then underneath the post on LinkedIn, on Instagram or on TikTok or something, somebody comes and writes, what is the likely cost of the service?

Now what this person did was the person responded and the person responded by saying the business owner responded by saying, kindly reach out to us via DM to discuss how we can be of service. Thank you :) let me repeat, someone, let's assume he could be a potential customer. Let's assume he could be a lead. Any which wisher somebody responded and the person sorry, not responded. The person put a comment under the post and the comment was what is the likely cost of this service And then the business owner responded.

Kindly reach out to us via DM to discuss how we can be of service. Thank you :) now for lots of you who have heard this, you say what did the guy do wrong? OK, it's not as if he did anything wrong. It's not as if the business owner did anything wrong, but things could have been better because remember I said that most Nigerian business people have this intuition that you don't want to put your prices in, in, in the comment section.

It makes a lot of sense because if you're going to put your pricing conversations on your timeline or your DM, you're going to run into a couple of problems #1 discovery is not ideal. Discovery is the part of the business relationship, the part of the sales conversation, you know, the part of the whatever where you're trying to figure out who is this person, what's their problem, how can I solve them? What is the appropriate package that I need to sell them on?

Now, this is not something that you can do in the comments section because I think it requires a very proper convo. You know, I call you and then we talk or wind the DM back and forth and then we talk or we send emails back and forth and then we we talk and then we type. So putting your pricing, handling pricing conversations in the comment section is not ideal because of these reasons. Now, another reason why putting pricing conversations in the comment section of your post,

it's not ideal, it's not good. It's because you will not be able to build value in those conversations. Building value is where you're able to talk it up and where you're able to tell the person that, look, this is what my product or my service can do for you. This is the reason why this is the best package. This is what we can offer. This is how we stand apart from the competition. This is what makes us different. This is what makes us unique.

This is what makes us the best, you know, blah, blah, blah, all those kinds of conversations. That is how you build value. Now, of course, you cannot build value in the comments section on social media because it's just one kind, because it's just tacky, because it's unprofessional. You know, you can't follow passing the yam back and forth like that on the comments section. It's just not professional. So that's the reason why lots of Nigerian business people want to push the conversation into DM.

And in that case, you're absolutely correct to do that. Then another reason why Nigerian business owners don't want to put pricing conversations in the timeline, sorry, not in the timeline in the comment section is because posts are time bound. What prices are not. The price that you put today is not necessarily going to be the same price next month, next week, next year. So you don't want it on record somewhere that your price is 2.5

M, maybe that was three years ago and now your price is currently 4.6. So because you don't want that kind of information floating around because the information as you put out in your DM is not going to be accurate, it's not going to be correct for all time, it's time bound. That's one of the reasons why Nigerian business owners do not want to put price information in the comments section of the post. Then also because some of us sell professional services like the person who is doing cleaning, there is no how that you can give a price for cleaning an office and it will be the same for cleaning a warehouse or it will be the same for cleaning a factory.

Because it depends what do they do in the factory, What is the waste product in the factory? What kind of waste do they have in the factory? What is the size of the factory, the size of the building, you know, what kind of regions, what kind of chemicals, what kinds of compounds will be required to clean it. So a lot of the pricing that you're going to give will be custom pricing and that's one reason why Nigerian business owners or sales people do not want to put prices in the comment section.

So the intuition is absolutely correct. But here is the problem. Remember, what this person did was they responded by saying kindly reach out to us via DM to discuss how it can be of service. Thank you :) now what our business owner did was they abdicated the responsibility. They left the initiative to the other person. They gave the other person homework. Somebody reaches out to you to say how much and then instead of you giving them an answer, you are now giving their homework.

You're now telling the person, you send me DM, then I'll respond to you. Now I don't know if it's surprising. Maybe it is because before I left LinkedIn, by the way, I don't have social media anymore. I've shut down my LinkedIn page so you can find me anywhere you need to reach me. My phone number is 08064662140. Then if you also check my podcast on YouTube, of course you drop comments that I'll be able to see them and WhatsApp number is there as well.

So that's how you can reach me. I'm no longer on social media. So while I was on social media, I used to see these kinds of queries happening back and forth. Somebody would say no, like I'm the business owner, why I'm the one? Why am I the one that is going to chase them if they're serious that damn, would you rush me? So that's that kind of attitude. But look, this is about sales, this is about money. So throw your feelings to decide.

It's not as if because you're the one that takes the initiative, you're the one who is assuming lower status. Even if you start the conversation, you're the one who takes the initiative, but you are very professional about it. You handle this thing like you're well trained, well thought out, subject matter expert, consultant. You will assume high status automatically even though you are the person who called first. Now think about, let's say Dangote and I will house on runs together and then Dangote is the one who calls me first when I

say that because now what is the one that called me? Therefore the guy has lower status. By the way, he will answer the phone call. By the way, we'll continue the conversation. Once I realized like, Oh yeah, so this guy is a bigger Bros. Even though he reached out first, his status will be restored because of the way in the carrying himself with the conversation. So that's the problem with this response of telling people,

respond to us via DM and then let's see how we can be of service. So you are meant to take the initiative as the business owner. You are meant to take the initiative as the salesperson. Don't give people extra homework. Do not give them extra steps because traditionally we know in sales that every single time you add an extra step that doesn't need to be there, you increase the chances of attrition. Attrition is when you know a conversation is going on and then you know something happens and then somebody's like, you know what, I'll get to this later.

And because of that, they forget and then they drop out of the sales funnel. So these things happen all the time. That's one of the reasons why if you're talking to a company, let's say you want to download something, it's a lead magnet. Typically they will only ask for your name and ask for your e-mail address because they know that for every single time you add one more element, attrition, people will fall away. So if you just put a box there saying give us your phone number, you'll get some responses.

If you say give us name and phone number, some people will drop off. If you say give us name, phone number and address, some people will drop off. If you say give us name, phone number, address, the reason why you're addressed. If you would, more people will drop off. If you say give us name, phone number, the reason why you're reaching out, would you like somebody to call you back? You see, the more things that you add, more people will drop off.

So it is a bad idea when it comes to sales to be giving people homework. If people reach out to you and they want information like this, take the initiative and then you respond instead of asking them send me DM, you take the responsibility. Send the person the DM, you just respond. You just say hi. Thank you very much for commenting on my social media post on blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. I noticed that you ask how much the service is likely to cost.

I couldn't respond there because it depends on a number of factors. But for me to give you an accurate quote, sorry, but for me to give you an accurate quote, I'd have to call you up or we need to have a chat about what it is that you need cleaned, what it is that you do in that space, the size of the building, the business, this, that, that, that, that. And that way we're going to be able to give you an accurate quote.

So are you OK with us having a conversation? You respond like that simply in the DM, You are the one who has taken the initiative, you've reached out via DM, you're the one who is now starting the conversation. You are reducing the chance of attrition. Because remember when people are on social media, you know, they just, they screw, they just, they screw, they're enjoying their life. You now give them homework that they should come and reach out to you on social media.

I expect that lots of them will do that. Some people fall away. So, so I know your pride. It's not even a matter of repriting. Just know that now you'll be the professional. Now you'll be the old guy. You're the one who knows what's up. So reach out to the person in a very professional, you know, manner and get this conversation going. So instead of saying when somebody comments on your post and they say, what's the cost of this service or how much does this thing cost?

And so I was saying, kindly reach out to us via DM to discuss how we can be of service. You just respond, you slide into their DM. Thanks for commenting on my post that I put earlier on this and this and that and that. I appreciate that you like the post. Unfortunately, I couldn't give you a price there because before I give you a price, I need to know a couple of things. See, and this approach works even if you're in fashion or whatever business you're doing.

Thanks for commenting on the post where I put up that style picture about Genevieve. I know that you would like to have something similar made, but before we discuss pricing, we need to, there are a couple of things I need to know. Is that particular fabric? Is that particular fabric or that particular style the one that you have in mind? I would like to have a styling conversation with you to, I don't know, you know, those of you in fashion space, you know,

excuse me. So excuse me, I'm recovering from a sore throat. So you know, all the questions that I need to ask, you know, about body type, what The thing is for, whether the dress is going to be appropriate delivery timelines when they need it, you know, this and this and that and that. So that's how you respond and you try and get the person in conversation. Now some people are going to be very stubborn and say, oh, sorry, I don't have the time to chat.

Just give me, just give me the price. Now what you do is you try and refocus. You refocus by giving your range and then making the ask again. So you say, OK, I appreciate that you're busy, but in the last year, the cheapest factory cleaning that I did was 1.2. The most expensive that I did was 12.6. As you can see, the gap between 1.2 M and 12.6 M is very, very wide. And that's because lots of factors come into play. Like I said, what is the factory for?

What is it that you make? What are the regions I'll need to clean it? How large is the factory? When do you need this thing done by, you know, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. These are all the factors that we need to consider. So yeah, if you need a price range, it'll be anything between 1.2 and 12.6. But if you want a much more accurate code, we really do need to have a conversation. So would you like us to continue chatting here in the DM or can we just fix the time?

So let me give you a call and let's get this thing sorted. So that is this kind of scope that we will take when we're dealing with comments on social media. Now, I know that applying these principles can be tricky, but if you need me to look at your particular circumstance, that's not a problem. You can connect with me, you can call me, send me a text message or a WhatsApp message on 0806466 2140. Also, if you're interested in my 15 minutes sale audit or you want me to look at, you know,

give you a business audit, that's not a problem. What's happening? It's the same number 08064662140. If you'd like to join my WhatsApp channel, just send me a WhatsApp message on the very same number so that we can hook you up and get you sorted. So that's it for today. If you've gotten value from today's episode, please subscribe to the podcast on Spotify, iTunes, YouTube, where it is that you listen to the podcast. Also share them with other people who are going to get value from the podcast as well.

And then if you've gotten value from the podcast, connect with me, call me, send me a text message or a WhatsApp message on 08064662140. So that's all for today. Thank you very much for your time and attention. I'll catch you at the next episode.