SELL OR DIE POOR (Gamechanging Secrets To Make More Sales And Make More Money Everyday)
SELL OR DIE POOR
How do you feel when you discover that people only screenshot your products, but never buy? What do you do when you experience low sales in your business? Copy every marketing strategy on social media, sprinkle anointing oil, holy water, and salt in your shop every morning, or sit down idle and hope that people will patronize you? When you know nothing about selling, every assumption and suggestion looks like the perfect solution.
The most difficult part of being a business owner is that even an unprofitable business needs money to keep it running every day. If you spend money daily, you should be making money daily too.
If I patronize you today because you are my friend or cousin, I can't guarantee that I will always buy from you. Your family and friends are not your customers. Stop forcing them to buy from you. It is not a sustainable strategy. The goal of marketing is to sell to strangers and convert total strangers into loyal customers.
A good product with poor marketing is like a good movie nobody ever watches. It never makes any money. This should not be your reality. In this book, Kingsley has discussed clearly how to sell to strangers and game-changing secrets to make more sales and more money every day.
Even if you do not have a business, your personal life is a business. Selling is not only for business owners.
Most of the financial hardships you are facing today can be solved if you know how to sell. If you do not know how to sell your skills, your knowledge, your vision, your products, or other people’s product, you are not leaving the trenches anytime soon.
Irrespective of whom you are and what you do, selling is one of the life-saving skills that you must learn.
Why I wrote this book
Growing up as a child was tough for me. I lost my dad when I was barely 4 years old. My younger sister was less than 5 months old. My mum was a teacher in a nursery school by day and in the evening, we all went to her shop where she sold electronic appliances. Mummy also had a sewing machine at home.
When I tell people that I have seen the four cardinal points of poverty, it is not an exaggeration. My eyes don see shege. For some part of my childhood days, I hawked sachet water and popcorn in Bodija market, Ibadan. During my secondary school days, I had good handwriting.
I had some students who misplaced their notebooks and some big boys who never write notes in class. I was paid ₦10 per page to write for them. I stayed awake at night and used my weekends to write. I was mostly patronized whenever Open Day was approaching. ₦10 in 2008 used to be huge money.
After leaving secondary school in 2011, I did several hustles before joining my aunt at the Redemption Camp. She put me in charge of her cement store, right in front of the house (opposite Tree of Life Estate). I resumed there every morning. Less than a year before I relocated to Ile-Ife, my aunt enrolled me as an apprentice in a Photography Studio.
I officially became a student at Obafemi Awolowo University in May 2015. My seven years in Ile-Ife were rough. I had no one to send me monthly allowances all through my undergraduate years. Pikin wey no get helper suppose get sense. I did so many businesses to survive that it was very difficult for my colleagues to believe that I had no financial backbone.
I went to all rooms in every hall of residence selling Best Brain Past Questions. I sold toads also. Yes! Live toads for ZOO 101 practical class. I was paid as a costumed Santa Claus at a Father Christmas party. I was paid as an MC in some events. I was also a Property Agent. Those people you call caretakers. Wetin Musa never see for gate?
I was also a part-time teacher in one of the schools in Ile-Ife. I taught in four different schools before I eventually graduated from OAU, not counting the number of homes where I was hired as a private tutor. I was a private tutor till the last day I left Ile-Ife.
The first money I earned as a freelance writer was in 2019. My friend - Akeem got a job via Upwork. He did it, but the client rejected it. He gave it to two other writers. The job was rejected still. He came to my room and asked me to help him out. I wrote the piece once in less than an hour, and it was accepted without any correction. Till date, freelance writing has been putting food on my table.
When I started NOVEL Nigeria in my second year at OAU, I had no laptop to edit pictures. All I had was a Canon 600D DSLR Camera which I had saved money to buy at the end of my first year. My roommate – Larry offered me his I better pass my neighbour laptop for two years for use whenever I needed it before I eventually bought mine.
Between 2016 and 2018 when I began NOVEL Nigeria, we trained 55 Nigerian youths in special skills like photography, event décor, web design, bag making, graphics design, and cake making. I was not only making money for myself, I was paying other students who worked for me too.
I used up my first complimentary chequebook before my last semester in school. By the time I was leaving Ile-Ife, I had assets worth about ₦1 million.
One of the days I can never forget in OAU was the period I was contesting for the Public Relations Officer of my faculty-student association. Although I lost, I learnt how to sell myself and my vision to over 3,000 students. I spoke to everyone – my classmates, my senior, and junior colleagues to vote for me.
I went to every class to canvass for votes. I was a Christian. I was an Igbo guy. I contested against Ibrahim who was a Yoruba indigene. Even though I knew that Ibrahim's die-hard supporters will never vote for me, I still had to speak to them. Mehn! Selling to your opponent is the hardest part of marketing.
When I look at the journey of my life so far, I can say confidently that knowing how to sell has saved my life tremendously and changed my life remarkably. I am not there yet, but I can tell you convincingly that I can never die poor. Never!
I have learnt the big secret of wealth. Take me anywhere, I will surely survive. That you were born poor is not your fault, but if you die poor, it is all your fault.
It saddens me deeply when I meet someone very knowledgeable or skillful in a particular area, but is broke. The earlier you understand that knowledge and skills alone cannot liberate you from poverty, the better for you.
You need to learn how to monetize your knowledge and skills and make them valuable to others so that they can pay you for them. It is not enough to be knowledgeable and skillful; learn how to sell too.
I do not know why you ventured into business. But I know that if you must remain in business for as long as you wish, your business must be profitable. Reducing costs and expenses alone can never make you profitable.
If you are struggling to make more sales and make more money every day, it is time to sit down and learn with an open mind. I wrote this book for you.
Keep reading as I hold your hands and walk you through this journey. In this book, I have extensively discussed the five basic questions that everyone MUST answer to sell massively and daily.
1. What am I selling?
2. Who am I selling to?
3. How am I selling?
4. Where am I selling?
5. At what price am I selling?
There is nothing theoretical about this book. Everything about SELL OR DIE POOR is 100 percent practical. These secrets and strategies have worked for me. It has worked for others. It will surely work for you too. Yours can never be an exception!
Are you ready? Let’s get to business.