How To Increase your Sales on WhatsApp by 85% — even if you suck at Marketing

If you don’t sell on your WhatsApp status don’t read this but if you do then I suggest you read this to the end if you want to find out exactly how to increase your sales by 85% on WhatsApp. At the ending of this article you will find a tiny secret called “The Bandwagon Effect” that will make a lot of people want to buy your product right now and become an evangelist of your business.

First things first

First off, you have to follow the little ol’ marketing rule. Look for what people are eager to buy and give it to them in exchange of money. Find a hungry market. People won’t buy what you sell because it’s cheap or because you spent time creating or making it. They will buy it because they need it and it is useful to them. You have to find a hungry market that is ready to buy your market right now!

Last year I answered the clarion call to serve my father’s land — Nigeria.

While I was undergoing the 3 weeks “indoctrination exercise” I had to pause all my business matters and delegate my unfinished work to my team…

I had one of the best experiences at the camp in Benue State.

One of my most favorite experiences was when we were given a book for free. “Successful Nigerian Entrepreneurs and how they started”. That was the title of the book.

I mean, imaging getting to learn from Nigerian entrepreneurs that have built global business from Nigeria. That’s just amazing.

I had to quickly express my excitement on WhatsApp and a lot of people were asking me “Milton, how can I get this book?”.

That was when I knew that there was a market waiting for me…

I started selling the book on my WhatsApp status.

Over 40 people preordered the book for N2,000.

Now I had a lot of orders but less supply so I had to start looking for people who threw their book away and I picked it up. Some others sold their book to me for N500.

I went ahead to look for where I could purchase the book in bulk for N700 and it got delivered to me at the camp…

My profit from that was over N75,000..

Now here is your lesson…

When you find what people need, build a product around it and market the hell out of that product. Do not sell your passion, do not sell what you studied in school. Sell only what the market wants and needs.

Imagine making an offer to someone that doesn’t need your product or service? That’s just a waste of time.

The bedrock of any business is the need of the market. If the market stops needing what you sell then you are out of business.

Do people really need what you are selling?

Is there a market for your product or service?

Can this product or service be scaled into a business that can be replicated?

If I was serious with what I was selling I would have built a business around it.

Find a market need, fulfill that need and scale! This is how you grow a profitable business.

One way to know if there is a market need is if people are always asking questions about a particular product or service then know that there is a market in that niche. You have to pay attention and listen to the conversations people are having around your industry.

Before I created the Lazy Rich Marketer Business Course I had people always asking me how they can set up a system to sell their health based product.

I knew that not everyone can afford to pay my team N120,000 to do that for them so I created an affordable course on how they can do it themselves.

I sensed a market need from the questions and conversations around the industry and I created a product around the conversation.

Assignment: What constant conversations are people having in your industry? What kind of questions are you always asked? How can you create a product or service around the conversations and questions?

Moving onward…

One thing a lot of entrepreneurs do that makes me surprised is their quest to create “something new”. I find that insane.

Why do you want to create something new?

See! The market doesn’t care about whatever new thing you want to create. All the market cares about is what they want or need. If your new whatever is not what they want, not even your shadow will buy it!

Instead of creating something new you can…

…Innovate

What is innovation?

Innovation is improving an existing system and not creating a “new system”

Let me give you an example…

If you’ve paid attention to the tech industry lately you will notice that every year a lot of tech firms introduce a new payment, savings/investment platform.

Even if we have a lot of these fintech platforms than required, people always come up with something around fintech.

Why?

There is money in that industry

This is the wisdom.

Instead of trying to create “something new”. Look for an industry with a lot of competition and create a product or service for that industry.

Better still, just sell exactly what they are selling. The market is big enough for everyone

Why?

The only reason there are competitions in that industry is because there is money in the industry. You will only find a lot of ants where there is sugar.

Stop running away from a competitive market. Embrace it and take your own market share. — Milton Tutu

To stand out in that industry, all you have to do is to have a better value preposition or innovate.

If you are not selling to a hungry market then go back to the drawing board and do your home work but if you are then…

Focus on Building Relationships.

Don’t just post your products on your status until your status looks like a second hand wedding ring. Build relationships. Post your pictures. Put out quality contents about your brand and what you do. Try to be funny and make your viewers laugh. Don’t just always sell but build a strong connection with them. In doing this, they will know, like and trust you. See the thing is, people do business with people and not products so show them that there is a human behind your business. Tell them the story about your brand. How you started the business, the challenges you are facing, how you are solving it, how you go to the market to source for products. One person that is good at this is Rhodwell the founder and CEO of OgaBole. Daily he shows his WhatsApp community his wins, struggles and challenges of building the business. When he goes to the market to buy plantain you will see it on his Status. When a particular customer is giving him challenges he will talk about it on his status and then ask “Are customers really King?”. By doing all of these he is building a strong connection with his customers and in just few months of starting the brand he has grown in to becoming the #1 trusted brand to buy original Port Harcourt Bole and fish in Benin City. You can check him out on IG (@ogabole) and patronize him. So focus on building relationships with your audience and you will see how they will become #1 ambassadors of your brand.

While you are building relationships make sure the product you are selling is a good product. The market can spot your BS from afar. If you sell a bad product to them they will never patronize you again even if you change your ways. Why? Because you are not the only one selling that product. They can get it somewhere else. To avoid this happening make sure you sell a good product.

You have found a hungry market, you’ve built relationships, and you sell a good product what do you have to do next?

Give them an offer they can’t reject.

Don’t just slap the price there or say “DM for price”. Stop being unfortunate. Use the art and science of persuassion to make your viewers drool to get your products right now. If you give them an offer they can’t reject they will tell you “shut up! take my money and give me your product”. A good offer is the most important you have to focus on when marketing. When you give them a good offer they will have no choice than to buy your products right now!

How do you create an offer they can’t reject?

• Use scarcity: Tell them… “I have only 10 of this products in stock right now and over 500 people are viewing my status right now! Swipe up to place an order before we run out of stock”. People are eager to take action when they see that the problem is almost out of stock. My good friend Chief Osaretin once said that a scarcity with purpose enhances value.
• Use Urgency: “…this product is valued for $300 but for the next 3 days you can get it for $250. In fact if you make a purchase right now you will get a free delivery anywhere you are in the country. Swipe up right now to place an order.” When they see that there is a time attached to your offer they will be more eager to take action right now.
• Offer a free delivery: I know this sounds tricky. Maybe you are asking yourself “Will I use my money to pay for delivery?” No! You won’t. You have to apply wisdom to this knowledge. If your product is valued for $300 and delivery is $20. Tell them that the product is valued for $320 and they get a free delivery. You get the idea? If you want to make this offer sweater tell them that they can pay on delivery that means they only pay when they get the product. You will have more conversions when you do this. The Pay on delivery model takes out the buyers objection. You can find trusted delivery personnels in Nigeria that works with the pay on delivery model on zulwa.net
• Have a call to action: Don’t just slap a price to your product or have an offer without using a call to action. Tell them to “swipe up right now and place an order!!.” Your call to action has to be authoritative. Don’t beg them to order but tell them to order! If you beg people to buy from you you are at their mercy and never ever in your lifetime be at the mercy of another human because if you are, they will use you for a joke.
• Offer a Money Back Guarantee: “If you don’t like this product call this number and we will give you a full refund of your money”. When they see that you are offering a money back guarantee they will be more persuaded to buy. Please terms and conditions should apply before people use you and catch cruise.
• Have an excellent customer service: Having an excellent customer service is part of giving a good offer. Be kind to your customers. Don’t be rude. Learn emotional intelligence and anger management. Customers are not always king but you should treat them like royalty because no matter how much good your product or offer is if you lack a good customer relationship then well, you will be out of business.

Use the bandwagon effect.

This is the juice. People will always want to be part of the bandwagon. That is why you see everyone tweeting and talking about big brother. People will always talk about what every other person is talking about. So how can you implement this on selling via WhatsApp? Post real time screenshot of alerts on your stauts as customers are paying for the product. When other people see that everyone is getting the product they will want to be part of the bandwagon. Keep posting the screenshots and tell them “Everyone is getting this product but you. This offer expires soon. Swipe up and place your order right now!!!” No one wants to be left out on what’s good so show them that everyone is getting what is good. I do this a lot when I sell via WhatsApp. I post screenshots of people paying for the product on my status so that other people can see it and when they do they will be persuaded to buy what I am selling. Sometimes when I write articles people share it on their status. When they do so I take a screenshot of it and post it on my status and other people will want to read what everyone is reading and when they are done reading they will post it on their status and I will do repeat the process again. When your WhatsApp audience see that you are reposting other peoples status, they will want to post too so that you will post theirs. It’s just psychology. No one wants to be left out.

Post testimonials of people using the product and getting results with the product. People want to be part of the good news and they also want to experience good things other people are experiencing so leverage on the bandwagon effect and go make some $$.

Lastly, feed the cow that gives you milk. Spend money on advertisement. Spend money on Facebook and Instagram ads and always direct traffic to your WhatsApp because the more people you have viewing your status that are interested in what you are selling, the more sales you will make.

In summary,

• Look for what people are eager to buy and give it to them in exchange of money
• Focus on building relationships
• Give them an offer they can’t reject.
• Use the bandwagon effect.
• Feed the cow that gives you milk. Spend money on advertising.

If you do all of these, with time and consistency you will increase your sales on WhatsApp by 85%