“Thanks Mr. Tayo for the visit, timely n wonderful. Thankx. Mr. K (name removed for privacy).”
[Lagos, 6p.m] I just returned from a 5 hour long visit to Lagos’ Oko Oba-Agege’s equipment suppliers, vet shops and feed mills. The above message was sent to me by a poultry farming expert I consulted there. So why was he thanking ME, when I was the one who went to consult HIM?
Well, like I tell people all the time, I adhere to a success philosophy that requires one to CREATE AN IMPRESSION OF INCREASE to everyone s/he comes in contact with.
Read on to find out how I did that, to the extent that this gentleman felt obliged to send me a thank you message after I’d left (NB: I strongly recommend YOU form the habit of doing same)!
Mr. K is a poultry farm business consultant who specializes in helping people start-up/manage broiler and poultry enterprises.
I found him when I did a Google search for farm businesses located in Oko Oba. I do this all the time when I wish to save time in visiting an area. Most people simply get dressed and go around asking for directions.
I happen to know that more and more farm business owners are taking the pains to put their business online via one or more platforms – often free ones. Most are not very web savvy, but they know the web offers potential benefits that can help them make more money or reduce operational (e.g. sales and marketing) expenses.
My search threw up about 2 pages of useful addresses, one of which was an abandoned facebook page setup in about 2 years ago, by Mr. K for his business.
He had posted a few updates and then stopped. But his mobile phone number was still visible.
I was browsing on my Blackberry, so I clicked on the phone number, and after 2 rings he picked up.
I explained to Mr. K, that I wanted to visit Oko Oba to consult with him and a few others, towards getting information to prepare an elaborate Broiler and Poultry Farm Business Plan for an old client, who wishes to venture into both areas.
This is an independent consultant client I’ve known since 2007, and who has hired me to develop several Excel-VB software for him over the years.
Now, he’s planning to retire from consulting to a property in his home town, which he wants to run the poultry business on.
Mr, K agreed to meet with me, and promptly gave me directions to find my way to his office. Around 12 noon, I arrive there, and he readily gave answers to all my questions relating to the data I needed for the plan I need to prepare.
In my usual manner, I went out of my way to find out how I could also add value to him – as a way of giving back…
I asked why he’d not continued using his Facebook page. He explained that he’d launched it to promote a broiler production project for a client, and once that ended, he’d stopped.
When he said this, I pointed out the fact to him that our meeting would never have happened if he had not left his mobile phone number on that page. I then added that many Nigerians today, readily use the web to search for information on how to start-up poultry and other farm businesses and that most were looking to hire a competent expert to help them begin.
I went on to tell him that if they encounter even a simple Facebook page regularly updated with useful information along the lines of their interest, they are likely to connect with owner of that page – if not immediately, then over time.
Quite often they would start by LIKING the page and monitoring the updates from it.
What I was saying was not theory: I promptly showed him a real life example of a Facebook page doing just that from Ibadan, in South West Nigeria.
This chap basically has built a captive audience of fans for his business on his page, and regular conversations are visible, in which they ask for his products and services, in response to offers he makes. And sometimes they simply thank and commend him for the useful information he shared (e.g. a Facebook note on a topic of interest) on the page.
Like I told the owner of that page, when I called him late last year to make my usual no-strings-attached suggestions, he can do SO MUCH more and reap even better monetary rewards, if he were to setup a system to automatically capture and use the contact information of his fans to reach them OUTSIDE facebook. So far, it does not appear that he has acted on my suggestion.
But even without doing what I proposed, it’s obvious the Ibadan based CEO is getting useful results from his Facebook page based marketing (click here to request the link to view his page)
I just do not like the rather manual, and non-viral/non-syndicated, Facebook limited nature of his model.
Having said that, I knew Mr. K would benefit greatly from adopting a similar model, which is basically zero cost. So, I showed him the Facebook page on my phone, and emailed him a link to it at the same time.
Then I forwarded 2 other emails containing links to other resources I send out to interested persons, which explain more about how to use what I call a Web Marketing System to boost marketing of your products, and also to sell your knowledge.
I told him that rather than simply let people make him prepare broiler production plans and have it free, promising to get back to him (which they rarely did), he could prepare a special handbook or guidebook on Starting a Broiler Production Business, and offer it for sale to those who contact him.
That way, when they call, he can simply offer a brief cost-free consultation and they say “If you want more detailed information, buy my information pack or e-book etc”.
No serious minded enquirer will say no to this!
But even if s/he does say NO, you can still say “Okay, I offer a one hour consultation session for say N5,000 or N10,000”. In certain cases you may choose to apply your discretion, and waive this condition, if you perceive the person is not likely to pull a fast one on you. I do this all the time.
What is important is to have a formal procedure in place for dealing with people who come to you for INFORMATION and/or EDUCATION which your unique experience and expertise makes you qualified to give.
Do NOT give everything away: You have the right to sell what you KNOW for profit. It is the key to lasting success and profits.
What I’m saying here applies to ANYONE in ANY line of business.
The key is to know how to go about it.
Note however, that no textbook explains how, and no limits exist to what you can do and how. If you need help thinking up ways to apply what I’ve said here, click here to tell me your unique needs.
Final Words: If you are good at what you do, there is absolutely NO REASON why you should not monetize what you know, to earn useful passive income – for LIFE!
No matter your field of specialization or vocation, even if it’s painting or broiler farming, if you’ve been at it a while, there will be knowledge and insights you have, that others lacking your experience and exposure will want.
In other words, apart from the physical products you offer, you should be able to earn useful income, for the long term, selling your “knowledge” (NB: I have been doing this for years selling my Feed Formulation Handbook and other information products listed in my online store).
However, your target audience will NOT know you have what they want, or need, IF you do NOT let them know.
Which brings us to the logical question: How do you let those who need what you know, discover that you have it?
That is what I have tried to explained to you in this article. Hopefully you can take what I’ve told you and run with it by yourself.
If not however, I can help you develop and implement a Web Marketing System to make it happen for YOU – like it does for me, and for my clients.
Call me on +234-803-302-1263 (in Nigeria) or +229-66-122-136 (in Benin Republic) for more.
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