Why Hiding From Phone Calls is Killing Your Sales

Today on the podcast, we're going to look at why it's not a good idea to block calls, why it's not a good idea for self-employed people and for business owners in Nigeria to remain inaccessible to their customers. Now to be honest, I didn't know that this kind of thing was possible until today because my dear wife, she bought something. I can't remember what the thing was. I didn't even ask what the thing was. But anyway, we happened to be in the neighborhood.

And so she was thinking, oh, since we're close by, let's just hop into this person's place and then pick this thing up. You know, Instagram vendors know then because they had tried calling the day before. That was a Sunday. And of course, none of us was at home to take the order. So she figured, OK, what else, let's just pick this thing up. So she copied the number from WhatsApp and then put it into, you know, normal dial and then she boss.

But anything not a ring, immediately you dial the thing just cuts. She said, what's happening? It's OK, no problem because, you know, sometimes reception the day what kind. So she tried to call on WhatsApp instead. And then she was looking forward to call. She said, I can't find where to call this person. This thing has been disabled. I say, how is it possible? She says, see now. And I looked at the phone and lo and behold, I don't know how this person did it, but you actually can't call them on WhatsApp as in the call action is not highlighted on WhatsApp.

The only option available on WhatsApp is for you to send this person the message. Then of course, wifey sent the message. And then of course, you know how we Nigeria business people can be now normal, normal message. You know your whatever is important to us. Welcome to so, so and so we'll get back to you when available. You know that kind of message then Instagram because you know on Instagram you can click through, you know, for WhatsApp calls or click through for audio calls on Instagram.

Azin Shah, There's some people that have figured out how to block themselves on every single platform so that if you're trying to reach into that business, the only thing you can do is to send messages. So you can't reach out to them on Instagram. You can't do that calling thing on Instagram, that Facebook call thing. You can't do it. Only messages on WhatsApp, only messages on normal call, if they will, if they will not ring,

only messages. So somehow the person has been able to disable live calls, the person has been able to disable WhatsApp calls. So only messages. And by the way, funny enough, I know a couple of people who only who like to do business that way, because back when I was in the events space, I remember a cake vendor, or should I say cake artist or whatever. She says she hates talking to people, that she prefers messages every single time she sees phone call that didn't give her a palpitation that she gets nervous.

So I'm showing you wants to do the phone calls. Anyway, forgive me for laughing. But anyway, the, OK, what I've said, now you've seen an obvious problem which is you want to deliver something, people are not available. So now we want to reroute orders. Rerouting orders now is not possible live because it can only be by message. And then if nobody's there to pick up the phone, then automated message will be. And then whenever people are available, they will get back.

So you can see that this kind of problem that it creates being accessible to your customers. You know, this is just one simple example, but The thing is I get it. Especially since like I said, one of my friends, she said any single time where customer they call palpitation like I had got a beat, Bing Bing, Bing, Bing Bing. So for her what she will do is she will ignore, she will now send WhatsApp message so that the conversation will continue from there.

So I get it, some of you are in business, some of you are business owners, but you want Peace of Mind, some of you want calm, some of you want control in your business. I get it, but this is a disadvantage. If you do that, your business is going to be perceived as non responsive. By the way, I'm talking about SM BS now, small and medium scale enterprises, self-employed people, you know, brand new business owners. I'm not talking about big corporations.

If you're a big corporation, you're APLC. You know, I understand you don't want people to call you because the people call you now be like 1000 phone calls a day and your staff won't do anything. But I'm talking about SM ES. We're fresh. We just did start getting a reputation as being non responsive is maybe not a good idea. And I think that's one of the reasons why people might not even want to refer you because you are non responsive.

Part of the reason why people say oh, call this guy, call this girl, you know, blah, blah, blah, you know, not my guy, he will sort you out is precisely because people feel like, oh, I can trust Kuli, I can trust Kemi because anything you know, Kemi is on it, she's on it. You cut yourself off. People can reach out to you by phone calls. The only way they can reach out to you is by messages. You're being non responsive.

Then it's a serious problem because you're going to be losing qualitative data. Now when you're doing research, you know, for those of you who study social sciences in Niger, we know that there's a qualitative data and then there's quantitative data. Quantitative data means the kind of data that you can put on a spreadsheet that you can write down in numbers. You know how many customers, how many orders, where the customers place, you know all that.

That is quantitative data. Then there's qualitative data. Qualitative data are the insights that you get when you're having conversations with people. Let me repeat. Qualitative data are the insights that you get when you are having conversations with people. When you are having conversations with people, know how insights go D because you'll be able to pick up on tone, you'll be able to pick up on inflection, you'll be able to pick up on new ones.

You'll be able to know that there's a problem. The example that I give is when somebody says, you ask how service and somebody says, yeah, it's all right because it's a phone call. You hear the you know that OK, this problem. And then those one time I was talking to somebody who is a vice Marshall, now that he's an A vice Marshall, but the guy's perpetually high. So, you know, for him was like, guys, all right, it's all right.

The words are the same. It's all right. But based on tone, inflection and nuance, you know that it's not the same. So when you're with the customer and the person say you try, it's all right, it's all right. You know that that is a good experience. You now know that. OK, it's time to dig in deeper to find out what it is that they like. Then if you're talking with someone, they say it's all right. You now know that. OK, the person say it's all right, but you know that this problem is Madam, this year is all right.

He'd be like, say my boys all mess up. It's OK, my you can tell me what happened exactly. Are you able to figure out what is happening? These kinds of things are hard to convey when it's just through text message alone, which is the reason why in the beginning, in the early stage of business when we just did self-employed, when we judge the, you know, brand new CEO, you know, that kind of thing. This qualitative data that I'm talking about qualitative as in quality.

Quality not be quantity. When it comes to phone call, man, you get, you will get quality. You know what somebody is feeling, are they happy? You will hear it. Are they sad, you will hear it. Are they angry, you will hear it. Are they nonchalant as in another here nor there you will hear it. So one piece of mind, Bob, some of you are you're doing this thing too soon, cutting yourself off from everybody. You're doing this thing too soon.

Also another thing is when you don't have access to phone calls, as in customer know they call you. You can't really build rapport because it's when you're talking to people is when it's a phone conversation that you know people can be dropping personal Nuggets and stuff like that. Because honestly, to be typing back and forth, you know, that thing had, I know that some of you who live and die by WhatsApp, but most people don't want to, you know, type, type,

type, type, type, type, type. Most people get tired now back and forth, the blah, blah, blah. You know, you're using opportunities to build rapport. Let people hear you hear that, oh, you're a correct guy or you're a correct babe. Let people hear you now, OK? You're an enthusiastic person. Let people hear you like, oh, you sound like you're a credible person, like you know what you're saying. Let people hear you. Let them feel you.

They also hear your customer self, hear them, feel them, know them. You're losing opportunities to build rapport. I suspect you're losing opportunities to build referrals, to get referrals because honestly speaking, who likes to refer impersonal things? Maybe in other parts of the world, I don't know. But in Nigeria, I don't know who refers in personal. I don't know. I think referrals are going to be easier to cultivate if it's a if it's a verbal or something,

you know, on the phone or if it's face to face this when I go and I see you that you cannot ask me that. Oh, would you like to refer? I bet. Can you refer me to somebody else or someone on the phone? They cannot ask me as a customer. Can you refer me to somebody else? You know, but to be asking for referrals by text anyway, if you're a business owner who has cut off phone calls completely and you've been able to get referrals from WhatsApp messages alone or from text messages alone, please let me know so that you and I can have a conversation.

I'd like to come back over here on the podcast Eat Humble, Grow and tell people that, look, that podcast episode that I made, you know, I didn't thoroughly consider everything. Anyway, since there's some of you who do not want to take phone calls. You want Peace of Mind, you want karma, you want control. No problem. Let's tackle the question. When do you stop taking calls? The answer is very simple. You stop taking calls when you're APLC, when you're a big boy, when you're mammals as in big girl, as in the money is flowing like the money is too much.

The phone has been ringing off the hook like orders. Well, the order is too much, you can't keep up and no problem. Then start blocking off numbers. Until you get to that point, you're not really helping yourself. Then you can also stop taking calls when you are a monopoly like NEPA. Now for instance, NEPA, they misbehave anyhow and you know they don't even take messages through WhatsApp anymore and that their customer care number is only one number.

They will put you on hold, die. They'll put you on hold for like 3045 minutes, you know, but because no competition. So even if your customer is angry with you, where would they go? So if you don't have competition, yeah, sure, no problem. Stop taking calls like they they can go and die. When they're ready, those two come back to you. It's not as if there's any other person. So when you're a big company, when you don't enter PLC, when the business is too much, when the traffic too much phone call too much, no problem.

Shut off your phone calls once you get there. I think you're doing so prematurely. If you're a monopoly, then shut off the phone calls. It's not as if anybody can like like water board, for instance. Like do they care whether you call in? You don't call in. Like where will you go? Worst case scenario, you go and sink your own borehole. You know they're a monopoly. So whether they're available by phone or not, I don't care.

Then another time you can stop taking calls is when you've spoken to so many customers and you've had so many customer interactions that you know your ideal customer profile. You know who your target audience is, you know what they want, you know what they're dealing with, you know what you know what problems that they have. You have all the data that you need to come up with them, new products and services for them. You know things like that.

That is the reason why, ladies and gentlemen, I am still talking to you guys today, even after 1500 and something episodes. It's because I haven't had so many interactions that I'm confident that I know exactly what all of you are thinking. So right now I need this data and that's the reason why I give my number at the beginning and at the end of every podcast episode. So call me, text me, send me a WhatsApp message on 08064662140

if you'd like to connect with me. You want a sales audit? You want me to look at some of your business processes, then call me. Same number 08064662140, if you'd like to be added to my WhatsApp channel because you're shy, you don't want to talk to me yet, that's not a problem. Send me a WhatsApp message on the same number and we will hook you up. So right now, this early stage, I still need to talk to as many of you as possible.

So I need to know also, it is only when I feel like, OK, it doesn't matter who reaches out today. I kind of know the kind of thing they will say. I kind of know what their problems are. Kind of know this. I kind of know that when you get to that stage, yeah, sure, no problem. Turn off the phone calls. What if you haven't reached that stage and you're shooting off phone calls? Now it's premature, but this is the main reason to talk to customers, especially when you're in the beginning of the journey.

Because you guys remember my man Peter Drocker? Peter Drocker says, how does he say it? Again, he's a business management consultant. And in one of his books, he says that the purpose of a business is to create a customer, obviously, because if you don't create a customer, you're not going to have any revenue. You're not going to have any. Like, somebody has to be there as a customer to buy what it is that you produce.

And that is why the business exists. If there's no customer, there's no business. And so Peter Drucker says that to create a customer, you need 2 main business functions. That's marketing and innovation. Now marketing is the business function that tells the whole world, I am here, I exist, this is what I do. Then innovation is when you improve the product or you improve your service delivery. Now this is the main reason why you talk to customers in the beginning.

You cannot do effective marketing if you don't talk to your customers because if you don't have knowledge on who the customer is, how will you know where to target them? How will you know what kind of messaging to use, how you know how to start conversations, how you know how to convert effectively? If you're not talking to customers, your marketing function in the beginning is going to fail. Then #2 innovation. Innovation changes in the product.

How will you know which product to change if you are not talking to customers? Remember what I said, because of inflection, because of tone, and because of nuance. There's a lot that you can learn from a phone conversation where you know that people absolutely love this, people are lukewarm about this, and people detest this. You now know what to do. The OK, the lukewarm one, how can we make it better? The one that they detest,

whether we should get rid of it. Changing your product, changing your service, you will not know unless you're talking to your customers. If you're trying to make any changes in marketing to make marketing more effective or you're trying to make any changes in your product itself or innovate on the way that you deliver the program as you know work now, just guess work when they do so if the business is just you and your wife in the house, I won't add a brainstorm.

Not a brainstorm. Now guess work. When they do, it's just guess work. Don't make this thing guess work. Open up the phones. You know, talk to people, talk to people. In the beginning, when you're a big company, when money don't become water, no problem, then switch off the phones. When you're a monopoly, the only name in town, no problem, switch off the phones. People don't have a choice. They will come to you or when you've spoken to so many customers that when the customer calls you're finishing their sentences.

You know exactly before they say if you originally what it is, I don't want to say OK, at that point then just turn off the phones. You're not going to learn anything you but not to then I beg talk to your customers. Oh, by the way, for those of you who know how to do these sorts of things, how you block people on WhatsApp, how you block, you know, so like nobody can call you. They can only send you messages if you know how to do those things on WhatsApp, on Instagram and all or not because I'm curious, just for the sake of curiosity, I just want to know like how do you do it?

So if you're one of those business owners who has done that, then please reach out to me 08064662140 Don't worry. I'm not going to try and convince you to do otherwise. I just want to know like how, how is that done? I'm just curious. Never seen it before. Today was my first time, so I'm just curious. Just want to know. So that's it. Thank you very much for your time and attention. I'll catch you or some other time.