February 19, 2016

Avoiding the LinkedIn sales pitch

It came almost immediately after I’d agreed to connect: a sales pitch. The LinkedIn user — not someone I’d known previously — had asked to connect, only for me to find out quickly that she really wanted to make a sales pitch.

As a member of the media, I’ve taken a fairly liberal approach to accepting invitations to connect: Unless someone is obviously a spammer or a scammer, you can pretty much count on me to click “Accept.”

Sometimes, however, that can be a mistake. Perhaps my greatest social-media pet peeve is someone who wants to connect solely for the purpose of selling me something. They don’t want to engage with you to learn about your company, to discuss trends, to share news and information, to highlight interesting articles or comment on the issues of the day. They simply want to sell a product or service. For them, LinkedIn is a tool for cold calls.

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“Good morning Christopher,” she began. “It’s great to connect with you and I hope your week is off to a great start!”

So far, so good.

“I’m reaching out because I work with several business professionals, and businesses in your industry who absolutely love what I do for them, and I believe you may be interested as well.”

Ugh. There followed three paragraphs highlighting the service, the quality of the products, why she joined that company (they’re basically awesome), how convenient it is and the discounts and packages available. “There’s no pressure and I’m very nice,” she added.

The next paragraph sought to schedule a meeting and provided a link to a website and video about the service.

But she ended well: “Thank you, and I look forward to hearing from you soon! More importantly, how about them Broncos :)”

Now, I’m sure that this person is very nice — she likes the Broncos, after all — and I might at some point have been interested in the service in question. But do you really have to try to sell me immediately after a connection has been made?

This is not the first time this has occurred, but it’s annoying each time. A Google search found a bounty of articles about the practice, most advising against the instant “pitch” after connection. Blogger Marcus Maraih put it this way on standardmarketing.com: “I don’t mind you trying to solicit business if you make it personal, but develop an open line of communication with me first. Send me that direct message to say hello, comment on a recent update of mine, and show me that you’ve actually taken interest in what I do. When something comes up that your business has a solution for, I will remember you and get in touch. Whatever you do folks, do not Connect and pitch immediately after the union; it violates informal LinkedIn protocol.”

I couldn’t agree more. LinkedIn can be a great, business-oriented form of social media. But it works best as a way to establish connections, not try to sell something immediately after connecting. Get to know your connections first, and eventually, a business transaction might — or might not — occur.

Christopher Wood can be reached at 303-630-1942, 970-232-3133 or via email at cwood@bizwestmedia.com. Connect with him on LinkedIn — but be nice!

It came almost immediately after I’d agreed to connect: a sales pitch. The LinkedIn user — not someone I’d known previously — had asked to connect, only for me to find out quickly that she really wanted to make a sales pitch.

As a member of the media, I’ve taken a fairly liberal approach to accepting invitations to connect: Unless someone is obviously a spammer or a scammer, you can pretty much count on me to click “Accept.”

Sometimes, however, that can be a mistake. Perhaps my greatest social-media pet peeve is someone who wants…

Christopher Wood
Christopher Wood is editor and publisher of BizWest, a regional business journal covering Boulder, Broomfield, Larimer and Weld counties. Wood co-founded the Northern Colorado Business Report in 1995 and served as publisher of the Boulder County Business Report until the two publications were merged to form BizWest in 2014. From 1990 to 1995, Wood served as reporter and managing editor of the Denver Business Journal. He is a Marine Corps veteran and a graduate of the University of Colorado Boulder. He has won numerous awards from the Colorado Press Association, Society of Professional Journalists and the Alliance of Area Business Publishers.
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