Bad pitching is like sending a random d*ck pic to a stranger.

It's unwanted, twa*ty behaviour and in the latter's case, it's creepy af.

So why on earth do people feel the need to flop out their pitch and hit you in the face with it right after connecting? I doubt anyone has ever brought from a pitch that's been sent 10 seconds after connecting. Or 10 minutes. Whatever. You get my point. If you have, let me know because I'd love to know how that happened.

Anyway. This week's newsletter is all about how to pitch in a non-twa*ty way.

To understand what makes a good pitch, let's look at where people fck up.

Here's a pitch that one of my clients got recently. Yes, it's from someone else who does LinkedIn. No, I don't care if you think I'm slating a competitor.

Anyway, it's... long, so I'll split it up and talk through each section.

Right. First off, the I trust you are well is just insincere. You don't actually care if I am or not. So don't bother saying it.

Then, we hit a weird sentence. "I am introducing this to you first, as one of my many LinkedIn connections".

Right, so one of two things has happened here. Either you've lied and I'm not first because you've sent it to your "many LinkedIn connections" (my money's on this) or you've taken the time to look at what they do and sent this highly personalised message just for them.

We all know which one is it.

Then we hit the nice little authority stamp. Typical sales patter here. The next paragraph about the strategies feels like a set-up. OMG, WHAT DO YOU MEAN THERE ARE A DOZEN OR SO STRATEGIES?? AND I'M SUPPOSED TO KNOW THEM ALL??? No. You're supposed to do what works for you. If you have 2 or 3 strategies that get you business, why do you need more? You don't.

So, why is this section bad? The biggest reason is it feels automated. There's a lie immediately which irks me, and the rest is just waffle that offers nothing other than scaring you about not using all the strategies.

Onto the next section. Lucky us btw! Offer the opportunity! Aren't we special.

Oh, damn it. Another lie. Although it's the same lie so does it count as one big lie? Debatable. Anyway, it's clearly not being offered to me first. Then we hit the pressure selling. GET THIS NOW BEFORE IT'S SCALED UP.

The considerations are a nice touch, I'll give them that. But still, in the context of everything, feels rather weird.

Annnddddd more pressure selling. JUST 5 CLIENTS???? OMG, I NEED TO BE ONE!!!

??

But then randomly pressure goes off and it's now our choice? Ok, fairs.

Ahhh that's why. The final line of I'll make you as successful as me.

Now, I've been a bit scathing here without much substance. Everything I've said so far is the detail. The big picture of why it's bad is twofold:

1. It's clearly a copy-paste/ automated message that's gone to everyone and lacks any sort of personalisation that makes great messages
2. It's full of Wolf of Wall Street sales tactics that just don't give me anything of value

If you want to get into sales conversations ASAP, pick up the phone and get cold calling. Done right, it's the quickest way to get business.

If you want business on LinkedIn, then it's more work and more effort. People tend to do it because they hate cold calling and want to build relationships with people and get inbound leads.

But inbound leads don't always happen overnight. Nor does a successful relationship.

This is ultimately why pitch slapping in the DM's never works. People hate being sold to like that.

So, how do you pitch in the DM's?

Firstly, let me rewrite our pitch slapping friend's message to show you one way of doing it if you need quick prospects and are willing to sacrifice the personalisation that will get you the best results.

Hi Fname,

This is out of the blue, but I'm launching something new and wondered if you would be kind enough to give me some feedback?

It's aimed at people who aren't getting as much business on LinkedIn as they want to (if this isn't you, then your feedback as someone who does would be equally as valuable).

I've attached the information, and thank you in advance for your help!

Thanks,

Adam

P.S. In exchange, if you ever need feedback on something you're launching, I'd be happy to help.

I've used something like this before (just changed the problem my ICP was facing) and it worked well- I ended up with a 17% reply rate, 19 meetings and 7 new clients.

Why does it work?

Because people are nosey so will read what I've sent. If it applies to them, they will be interested and reply, if not, they won't- but they may still give you valuable feedback that you can use going forward.

And it's not selling. Not directly anyway. Some people may clock on to what you're doing but meh, move on. Most won't. What you're doing is asking for feedback on something. It doesn't automatically put people's backs up. I'm trusting my attachment to be compelling enough to attract those in need. So I'm actually pitching through my flyer/brochure.

This is what I'd do if I had more time to build relationships. For this, I'll be a CV writer. I'd go to the search bar and type "made redundant" or something about looking for a new role. Then filter to posts using this button:

Then I'd filter to the last 24 hours or last week using the "date posted" filter. Then I'd go through the posts and drop some advice and a link to a downloadable tip sheet for creating amazing CVs. And connect with them if you're not already.

Keep track of who you've sent it to, and then follow up on those who you can see have downloaded it by dropping them a message saying "How did you get on with the CV tips? Anything else I can help with?"

The key is having a good offer and call to action in your downloadable. After all, they need to know you're not free.

If they need more help, you can either offer to jump on a call to talk through your service or say of course I'd love to help you, this is how. It's a pitch that's been asked for. Like your partner asking for a d*ck pic. World of difference.

Then it's down to you to close them. If they don't become a client, you've got an email address that you can use to give more value through email marketing. After all, getting people onto an email list is an excellent result from a cold message.

That's it. Two ways to pitch that aren't twa*ty and will actually get you much better results in the long run.

I'll be covering messaging as a whole in a couple of weeks, so keep an eye out for that!

So you know what to do- Grab your balls and pitch in the right way.