I'd like to join your network...

There seems to be a trend doing the rounds on Linkedin and it involves the act of accepting invites from salespeople...Then bemoaning the fact that they have tried to sell you something?...

"Wait a minute!... a sales person trying to pitch something to you? How rude?"

As a 'salesperson'  I find this act of sarcastically and publicly chastising sales people for simply trying to do their job as a little bit condescending. So, I thought I'd put this out there to see if I can help with both sides of the argument. However, before I do so, I'd like to remind you all that I am a Sales trained and Sales orientated individual and so my viewpoint may well reflect that but I will also try to offer some free advice or tips for budding and enthusiastic "Pitchers" whilst also trying and ease the pain of those whose time is clearly more precious than everyone else's.

Firstly, in my honest opinion, times have changed, cold-calling and door-knocking have been predominantly replaced by 'Social Selling' and our ability to find new prospects and opportunities online has been made so much easier thanks to the various media platforms including (but not limited to) our good friends here at LinkedIn. Gone are the days of simply tearing a page out of the Yellow Pages or Dunne & Bradstreet and hitting the phones for 6 caffiene-fuelled hours a day. Instead we are now typing our way into our prospects boardrooms.

This development should mean that we change our 'cold' approach somewhat but apparently this logical evolution hasn't reached every sales team yet.

Before, when sales teams were banging the phones, they almost never had any  idea if the person they were calling had any interest or indeed any NEED for their product or service...hence the term cold call. It literally was a numbers game. You became successful largely dependent upon how many calls you could make in a morning or how many people answered your call. They also became experts in bypassing the proverbial 'Gatekeeper' in order to speak with numero uno. Obviously, it was also a very unpopular way of starting a business relationship and a lot of its intrusive success was often down to pure luck. Not very strategic at all.

However, thanks to networking sites such as Linkedin, and the phenomenon that is GOOGLE... we can now "do our homework" without our prospects even knowing we are circling. We can get full names, contact emails, addresses, social media pages, blogs, tweets, snapchats and press releases so that when we do make first contact...we know more about what they like, want and need than most of their employees do. Indeed, we can socially "Stalk" our prospects and monitor every public word they say or print so that we are well armed to make initiate the approach. A plethora of essential sales tools at the touch of a screen.

...so why don't sales people use them?

Sales has always been about numbers. More cold calls equals more prospects, more prospects equals more opportunities, more opportunities means more business and ultimately... more business means more success. So the traditional approach has been (and still is) to fill your sales funnel with more cold contacts so that you get more success. But nowadays we no longer have to utilise the shotgun approach whilst hoping that we will just hit something with every shot... We can now be more selective... more precise. 

Using social media or networking sites to sell your products or services is a skill. It's not difficult to develop and you have to invest time and effort into developing it... but nonetheless, its well worth doing. There are a few rules to follow and a few common sense theories to apply but other than that, you are free to let your natural selling ability come out and to get yourselves connected to pretty much anyone you want to. However, when a salesperson fails to follow these rules it can get quite messy and they can do themselves more harm than good so they need to take this very seriously indeed.

For example, when making a cold call, you typically gave your name and company details during the call but that was it. If the call went well, you were the hero... if it went badly, you hung up... drew a line through the prospect and dialled the next one. Conversely, your prospect would either thank their lucky stars that you called when you did, or put the phone down and berate their PA for letting that Damn salesman through! But... when using SM or networking sites... your prospects now know who you are, where you work, what position you hold, how long you've worked there etc... and they may even have a nice glossy headshot of you which they can share with all of their own network as a warning NOT to take your call. Or worse, call into doubt your professionalism.

So here are some rules that, in my opinion you need to follow to be successful... 

1. Do your homework. Don't just assume that everyone on linkedin is a potential prospect. They are NOT. Investigate the company, follow their posts, their blogs and their updates to gauge if they are in the market for your product or service. Once you are certain that you could potentially help them, then you can begin your approach. 

2. Don't go for the DM (Decision Maker) Straight away. This may sound like a strange one but unless you are selling a one-off product or service after which you'll never speak to this person again... chances are that you will be wanting to build a lasting relationship with this person and that means you'll only have one shot at this. You cannot miss. Instead, once you have identified your ideal client company, start by connecting with their own sales teams. Sales people are very gregarious by nature and 9/10 they will accept all invites from almost anyone as they naturally want to expand their own networks. Once you have done this you can just leave it... its already served its purpose.

3. Wait for a week or so... This may sound counter productive but it also increases your chances of a successful first contact. People are busy, most of them (not all) who accept your invite, will do so without even checking who you are so after a week or longer they won't even remember how they know you or when they connected with you. This is also important as when you do eventually make contact, it puts them on the back foot a little bit as they won't recall if they SHOULD remember you or not. This gives you a small psychological advantage for a few minutes but often thats all you need. Imagine you are at a social event... someone you've never seen before bowls up to you and says "Hi (name)... how are you?" your first reaction is one of embarrassment as clearly this person knows you but you can't remember them or how you met... so you act like you remember them right? The same effect occurs within social networking if you wait a while before you make first contact... indeed, the longer, the better.

4. Check out your DM's profile. This again serves to increase your chances of being taken seriously and essential if you want to build initial trust quickly. I would suggest you do this at least twice or even three times in the week leading up to your first contact. Sites such as linkedin, show members WHO has recently looked at their profile and it will give them the impression (correctly) that you have been doing your homework.

5. Check out your DM's recent activity. By doing this you can see what your DM has been doing, what they have been commenting on or what events they are focussing on at this moment in time. This will serve a number of purposes... most importantly it will give you an 'Ice breaker' for your initial contact but it will also allow you to evaluate if the timing of your approach will be successful or not. Obviously, if the company is in the middle of a huge office move or perhaps a merger or acquisition... then now might not be a good time to talk about who supplies their bottled water coolers...

Now you're as prepared as you are ever going to be... it's time to make 'first contact'

So now you have done your homework and laid your foundations... (some of which may have seemed pointless) it's now time to invite your DM to connect. This is where your groundwork comes into its own.

Sending the invite - If your networking site allows you to customise your invite then do so. This is where you use your icebreaker. (No5 above)...

Hi John, I saw that you were involved in (name of event) recently. I have some unique insights on that. It may be good to connect.

This invite above uses a lot of Human psychology but I am telling you now... it works about 90% more effectively than a standard or generic invite. Firstly it shows that you are not a cold calling machine and that you have singled John out for your attention. It shows that you have taken an interest in what he is doing recently which makes him feel like you value him and his opinion. Finally the simple use of the word "may" indicates that nothing is certain but unless he connects, he will never know. This plays on the Human minds natural curiosity and is a strong driver for the invite acceptance.

So, having now raised Johns curiosity to a point where he at least feels that he should find out who you are, he decides to check out you, your profile and your organisation. What he sees now is the fact that you are already connected to several members of his team so surely you can't be a bad person? Your name will also have rung a bell with him and he remembers that you had checked out his profile a couple of times recently so again you must be serious about him and what you have to talk to him about.

He accepts!

You are now connected to your DM. Although he/she has accepted, they will still be wary. So don't go wading in with your standard 'Copy and Paste' full length presentation pitch. You'll simply undo all the work you've done so far and I guarantee nothing other than the first sentence will be read anyway. Instead keep your initial approach to even less than your standard elevator pitch (30 seconds)! In fact, imagine you have the time the elevator doors open then close to grab their attention. Seriously... you have about 10 seconds to let this person know that you are serious professional and not 'just another salesman'. Anything more than one sentence and you are reducing your chances of success by 30% with each additional sentence.

Hi John, Thanks for accepting my invite. Looking at what your company has been doing lately, I think I can possibly help you with one of our services. Are you free for a quick call? Thanks again.

Here the same principles as the customised invite apply. Short, bespoke, unique to his business, relates to what he's been doing and still there are no guarantees but a Possible benefit to him but he needs to take your call to find out. He will take your call, either that day or he will set a date for you to call. And even if he doesn't at this exact moment in time... he will be pleasant, generous and most importantly he will not disconnect from you and you will have earned his respect  his connection for the future.

Now I appreciate that all of the above sounds long winded and a bit of a hassle just to get to a phone call... But consider the alternatives. In order to get this close to a DM who has a need for your product or service using traditional cold-calling methods may have taken you 20-30 calls and a lot of time and luck. By using the above approach on a regular basis and sticking to the same principles you can create 15-20 qualified, DM contacts every month and you can cherry pick the clients that you want to do business with rather than just dealing with people who were happy to take your call. 

Top Tip: Do your Linkedin Homework and background work whilst lying on the couch watching TV. Its easy to do, very cost effective and frees up your day to make better use of your selling time. 

So what happens if you don't follow the above rules...

Obviously what I have outlined above works very well for me and people who I have trained or worked with and of course we each have our own styles of selling etc... But I have found that in almost every case where the above guides have not been followed there is a failure in the objective and by failure I mean a prospective door slammed shut on you forever. 

You don't have to scroll through too many threads on Linkedin to see people moaning about sales people pitching at them as soon as they have connected or pitching them products or services that they would never even need. This not only has a negative impact on that organisation, but it also sets a negative vibe for the sales profession on all Social media or networking platforms and as a sales professional I'd like to see this trend stopped.

As I have mentioned before, the majority of professional 'People' are curious, gregarious and lazy when it comes to networking. Some, depending upon their industry or background will simply see having a large network as social kudos. Some will simply accept invites for the reasons I mention above and these are people that as sales people you should avoid as they bring very little value to your network. These are people with the wrong idea about networking in my opinion. They network for the sake of networking and having a lot of connections because they think it shows that they are popular and well connected. LION's (Linkedin Open Networkers) for example are people who will accept all invites with the sole aim of getting as many connections as possible. They will advertise and tell you otherwise of course and they will offer their services or offer to help in anyway they can but deep down... they want numbers. Trying to sell to these people is like trying to herd cats...pointless.

So be warned, if you invite someone to connect that you have either not done your homework on, or with whom you have no other connection and they accept your invitation... Just think before you fire across your companies brag sheet, and always just ask yourself why they have done so? Tailor your first approach accordingly as I have suggested above or otherwise you may fall foul of the 'Social Shaming' Trend. But if you stick to my guidelines above than few people will have a negative opinion of you or your sales approach. 

Remember, it is NEVER acceptable to send an unsolicited message which contains more than two sentences on what you or your organisation does. In fact, even starting your message with phrases such as "my company specialises in..." or "ABC Ltd is a company that..." will just get your message deleted and risk the undesirable consequence of being labelled as unprofessional. Keep your sales pitch for the subsequent telephone call or a physical or virtual meeting. The object of joining someones network is to see if there is a justifiable reason for having that call or that meeting. 

Finally, a request for those of you that blindly accept invites from Sales professionals... Then moan about being pitched to...

Salespeople have a job to do too. Its not easy which is why they get paid good money if they succeed. They are not on networking sites to make friends or to find out about you or your family. If they invite you to connect its because they believe that they can sell you something. Don't take it personally but to us, you are a potential prospect thats it. But by accepting their invite you are opening yourselves up to the above process as I have mentioned and they WILL try to pitch something to you. That's their job and its what they are being paid to do. In fact, whether you like to admit it or not, t's probably what your own sales teams do. 

Of course, you have a job to do also, so imagine if you had a bad day and made a mistake with a client. Would you want that client to spread your name and company all over the social network that you are both members of telling everyone how bad you were? Of course not.

So if you get pitched by a sales person from whom you've just accepted an invite... Give them a break and just say "No thanks". It's easier for you, takes up less of your time and doesn't humiliate another human being. Or, if you really are too busy to have a few messages sent your way then maybe I suggest you get off of the networking sites altogether or get yourself a PA. Trust me when I tell you that I have worked with CEO's and CTO's of some of the worlds largest companies and I can tell you that your time isn't that precious that you cannot type two words and move on. Life is too short.

Happy Networking people!