Musings on LinkedIn connection requests, loving a good sales pitch, and hating getting hit in the face with an unexpected ask!

I’m tired of looking at my #LinkedIn connection requests and wondering, should I accept or not? If I click yes to their request will I immediately receive a sales pitch? It kind of makes me flinch thinking about it. So, a bunch of those requests sit in my inbox, just looking at me, while I write this post.

This may seem strange since I’m in #sales, and don’t get me wrong, I love a good pitch. But I hate accepting a request and then getting smacked in the face with an ask. It’s almost like I hit the accept button and then sit back, getting ready to dodge whatever will get thrown at me.

I have friends in #business that accept all requests and ignore any communication that follows. Their philosophy is that a large number of followers make you look more dynamic, have the ability to get your content shared more, and may allow you to get LinkedIn perks like the use of LinkedIn Live. And, there’s truth to that method.

Other friends delete them all. Bad asks or vague asks result in a simple deletion of the request or the dreaded “I don’t know this person.” I say dreaded because if you are on the receiving side of too many people “not knowing you” – you can end up being marked as spammy by LinkedIn.  By deleting those unknown non-personal requests, you can save yourself some headaches and save your network from being hit on in the same way. So, truth to that method as well.

The thing is, I don’t want to miss out on a great connection. Maybe the person reaching out just needs some LinkedIn training or they’ve been taught the wrong way on how to use an automation tool. I feel like I’m on a game show wondering what’s behind door number three. Is it a new car or a donkey?? Will I hear cheers in my head or the dreaded whah, whah, whah, when the boobie prize is revealed??

There are times when I send a message back asking why they want to connect.  Sometimes I send this message “I tend to keep my connections to people I know or work with in some capacity. Since we don’t know each other I am curious as to why you’d like to connect? I use LinkedIn to manage relationships over the long-term, so it would help to know something about you to connect the dots and create value,” but I don’t have the time to do that all day long. It is a pretty good way to vet requests though. I’ll either get an answer that will give me more clarity or it will get ignored, which leads to a quick and easy deletion. (Feel free to use that message yourself and see what results you get.)

So, what do I do? I roll the dice. Some days I feel adventurous and accept all the invites. Other days, I delete most of them. And on others, I go with my Libra instincts, weigh all the options, and carefully accept some and delete others!

And so here I sit, still with connection requests unanswered, yet feeling a little bit better after venting my thoughts.

 How about you? What’s your process on accepting LinkedIn requests?

This article was written by Christine Miller of Miller Sales Consulting. With extensive experience as a highly strategic sales motivator and #sales coach, Christine has excelled at building and structuring sales organizations. In addition to sales coaching and sales training, Miller Sales Consulting offers Virtual Sales Management. More sales advice can be found on her LinkedIn page, her blog, as well as Medium. Subscribe to her videos on YouTube.