How To Prospect On LinkedIn

Last Friday morning, I got this message on LinkedIn from a connection:

"Good morning Wes, I hope you're doing well. I know this might be a bit unexpected, but I'm aiming to strengthen my connections on LinkedIn. Would you be available for a brief call or zoom on tomorrow or Monday? I'm interested in learning more about your business and exploring ways we can support each other. No sales pitches or investment requests, just a friendly conversation to see how we can be a resource to each other.”

I replied,

"Name, No. I appreciate the offer, though.”

He replied,

"No problem.”

No hard feelings.

No offense taken.

No alternate of choice closes.

Now, I could’ve ignored his message, but I appreciated the personal outreach and saw it as a teaching moment for all of us.

He opens well and uses my name.

I don’t think you need the “I hope you’re doing well” nicety, but maybe that’s a personal preference.

But when dealing with drivers/dominants/goal/task-oriented people, you can skip the pleasantries and just get on with your ask.

(How do you know who you’re dealing with? Listen to episodes with people like Steven Sisler, who Explains Why The Psychopaths Make It To The Top.)

“I know this might be a bit unexpected, but I'm aiming to strengthen my connections on LinkedIn.”

When engaging with a prospect, minimize the usage of I/me/we/us.

Your prospects are like Toby Keith…"I wanna talk about me, I wanna talk about I, I wanna talk about..."

Make your prospect the hero of the story.

No, a message on LinkedIn from a connection is not “unexpected,” so don’t start that way.

“…I'm aiming to strengthen my connections on LinkedIn.”

I don’t care what you’re aiming to do. You must answer WIIFM: What’s In It For Me?

I’m aiming to…

• Make money
• Save time
• Lose weight
• Etc.

Talk about what your prospect wants. If not, why do they want to talk to you, a complete stranger?

“Would you be available for a brief call or zoom on tomorrow or Monday?”

He sends this on a Friday and asks if I want to spend my Saturday with him—a stranger—on zoom!?

Come on, man!

Okay, he gives me the option of Monday. Quite generous of him to give me two options.

But how enticing is his offer?

“I'm interested in learning more about your business and exploring ways we can support each other.”

There he goes with the “I/me/we/us,” to which I reply (internally), “I don’t care what you want. I care about what I want.”

“No sales pitches or investment requests, just a friendly conversation to see how we can be a resource to each other.”

Well, that’s awfully nice of him. But I can see by his profile that he’s a financial advisor—not Santa Claus—so there’s a latent pitch in here somewhere.

Technology is making us stupid, impersonal, and desperate

There have always been cheesy, greedy, pushy sales and marketing people, i.e., carpetbaggers, who would jump on the latest tech trend to make a buck, but things are out of control now.

AI and auto dialers and Fiverr and $3 developers and COVID and work-from-home have turned us into mercenaries, not humans.

Back around 2002, I was sitting with a systems engineer friend of mine who was trying to explain why testing and development took as long as it did, and he said,

"You can put a woman in a room with ten engineers, but it’s still gonna take nine months to make a baby."

Since he’s a Southern Navy puke and I’m a Southern Air Force gentleman and scholar, that made sense.

Ditto for making business connections, and becoming a resource for one another.

Now, that latter part can be short-cutted a bit by leading with value, i.e., offer a referral, a free tool/guide/resource that can make my life easier, even a compliment about something your prospect has said or written or produced.

Yes, flattery will still get you somewhere.

But it won’t accelerate everything every time with everyone.

Bob Burg , who has been on The Sales Podcast twice, was the king of “givers gain.”

What do you give in order to gain?

Your best prospects are busy.

Your best prospects make quick decisions.

Your best prospects want and need key insights.

Your best prospects will implement.

Your best prospects will allow you to implement.

You show your best prospects you are their best option by being different.

Look at your own inbox on LinkedIn.

Do the opposite of what you see and you’ll be well on your way to being a sales superstar on LinkedIn.

Market like you mean it. Now go sell something!

Need some help? Join the Inner Circle.

*****

Some replies on my Facebook profile to this last night:

• First off, if you’re gonna say my name, say it correctly. And the order in which he strung words together told me that he doesn’t believe what he’s selling.
• Ugh, I hate my LinkedIn inbox. It’s all vendors who wanna help save my business (because they totally know the issues I’m having in my industry) or people who want jobs. At least the people who want jobs are pretty humble about it. But the salespeople aren’t taking no for an answer, so sometimes I just have to stop responding (if I respond at all).
• Lol. There’s nothing worse than someone pretending to care in an effort to get into your pants.