We have established with our last scenario that it's a good idea to approach friends, family and associates as a prospecting exercise when looking for people to talk to who could become potential customers in the future.

In our last post, our female entrepreneur approached her aunt with three daughters to get "Aunty" to become a patron for the bags and shoes that the entrepreneur sells.

For now let's call the shoe and bag vendor Alice.

In the last post, Alice approached her aunt and said "good morning Aunty, I am now selling good quality bags and shoes from Lagos, Malaysia and some from the UK. My prices are really good. Aunty please come and help me and buy from me".

Is that a good way to start a buying conversation?

NO! Because when you try to push your product or service on people, they resist. Resistance is the natural human response you get when you try to push something on people.

It’s likely that “Aunty” will say in this case, “Well done my dear! I’m glad you’re getting busy instead of staying idle. Please send me your prices on WhatsApp and give me some time let me think about it”.

That is not the kind of response we’re looking for!

Since Alice is talking to her aunt, we can make a few more assumptions.

It's safe to assume that Alice and "Aunty" follow each other on Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp.

Since that is the case, "Aunty" already has a vague notion that Alice is really interested in shoes and bags these days.

If you haven't been posting to your social media about your product or service, you should! This is because it will make it easier for you to start organic conversations around what you sell.

So now that we know that "Aunty" has been "warmed up" a little by the social media posts, how do we go about initiating a sales and business conversation without making it seem that we are pushing our bags and shoes on unsuspecting family members?

We will answer that in the next post.

Until then, ask me anything in the comment section below!