Have you ever been shamed for cold-pitching? I have.

Realizing that it is my duty to share my talents and gifts with the world and if I just keep it to myself then in a way I'm stealing from the people who can benefit from it, took a truckload of inhibitions associated with reaching-out & cold pitching off my chest.

Covered more on this in my last blog, in case you missed:

Here's why I shied-away from marketing myself for the longest time!

And as I was becoming more confident in reaching out to my prospects and making them aware of my services as a health and wellness content creator, I almost got hit by a virtual stone being thrown at me.

I'd reached out to a coach on Instagram. She helped introverted female business owners with personal branding and better promoting themselves on social media. Her content resonated with me so much, especially as I identify myself as an introverted person. I thought I could help her in content creation and so dropped her a message.

But the response I got wasn't a yes, no or maybe but something completely unexpected and I don't mean it in a good way. She slapped me with a lengthy message that went like this:

"Hi Pragya, thanks for your message. I'm a huge fan of always leading with amazing content and value that speaks for itself over cold messaging people without even knowing if they need what you're selling :)

All the best with your business! Please reach out if you ever need any support in how to do this :) Have a great day!"

Don't get me wrong, I get it, to some (especially introverts) such sudden outreach feels like a breach of privacy and overwhelming. I've felt that myself at times when somebody just randomly pinged me and pitched. And there is a much more gentle way of approaching your prospects by building a connection at first. Or even better, just keep putting out valuable content consistently and let them find you and reach you.

All that is great but in my humble opinion, you can't just rely on one way of generating leads and discard all others. Just like you can't just rely on one platform for getting all your leads and ignore all others. Doing that will be foolish. Besides, most will agree that outbound leads bring more business for a B2B business than inbound leads.

Anyhow back to the point, whatever her thought orientation was, I could clearly sense a touch of sarcasm in her tone and it made me feel a bit unpleasant. I thought did I do something so bad that she wanted to make sure that her not-so-happy-&-supportive thoughts get registered in my head via that long para. The answer I got was a clear 'No'. Had she not liked my message, she could have said "no thanks" or simply ignored it.

For one sec even I questioned myself but to be honest, I'm not and will not feel ashamed one bit for reaching out to someone and telling them how can I help them. I mean will anyone ever question a prospect who reached out to you after getting impressed by your work? I bet not. In fact, that's the sweet spot everyone wants to hit. But then why question the person who's doing the same, just in place of asking for your service, they're offering there's.

Respect should be basic, not selective.

Here I feel it's noteworthy to mention that I've mostly got respectful responses cold-pitching. Not to mention, some amazing high-value clients through this method who actually mentioned that they are very interested in my work or that they were in fact looking for a similar service and we took it from there.

So, to anyone who has or ever faces this kind of response, just know that you didn't do anything wrong or to feel apologetic about. Here is the humble reply that I sent her:

"Thanks for letting me know that xxxxxxxxx however I provide a content creation & social media management service for dynamic female entrepreneurs in the health and wellness space. With that understanding, I wrote to you.

I agree with your point at the same time I believe in my work and consider it my duty to spread awareness about my work and how can it help as far and wide as possible to those who might need and benefit from it ????

Thank you so much and I wish the same to you too! Take care?"

Last but not the least, don't let anyone's voice lower your morale and stop you from going out there and shine!