Are Your Reps Pitch Slapping Their Prospects?

I recently discussed the rise of pitch slapping and its serious consequences for sales reps and prospects alike with Andy Paul, Host of The Sales Enablement Podcast in the USA. We both shared the same concerns.

You can?listen to the podcast here.

I'll say more about the podcast later. First though, allow me to introduce you to the subject matter.

What is Pitch Slapping?

It is a particularly sinister form of unsolicited sales outreach. Actually, it is a modern-day version of the old "bait-and-switch" selling technique. Only, this one takes place on social media.

Has this happened to you?

Someone you don't know reaches out to you on LinkedIn, asking to connect with you, supposedly because you have a few contacts in common, or because they want to explore synergies, or some similar reason.

So, you innocently agree to connect with them.

And what happens next?

That's right:?Bam!?They hit you up with a sales pitch!

You've just been pitch slapped!

It seems that these delinquents don't actually care about you, their prospect.

To them it's just a dumb "numbers game", which is a particularly lazy approach to prospecting.

So why do it?

Sellers do it because it is easy to set up, it's cheap to run, and it can scale.

Pitch slapping is ugly, and it is widespread.

I recently ran a?poll on LinkedIn?that has so far attracted over 6,600 view, 154 votes and more than 60 comments.

See the poll results below:

What's interesting about the poll results is that some respondents had not realized that they themselves had been pitch slapping their prospects.

They thought it was an acceptable sales practice!

Fact is,: No-one likes being pitch slapped.

It makes you, the prospect, feel tricked and betrayed.

What's possibly even worse than the betrayal is that, often, they have no idea whether you are in the market for, or even remotely interested in, what they're selling.

The unintended consequence of all this lazy prospecting is that buyers become jaded and turned off LinkedIn. In fact, it gives all sellers, as well as LinkedIn, a bad reputation.

I have heard from people in my network that they are no longer using LinkedIn, because of all the unsolicited spamming.

What's worse is that, since the pandemic, prospects have become so sensitized to unsolicited outreaches that - figuratively speaking - they have been retreating even further into their shell.

It seems that buyers' tolerance for cold solicitations is now completely gone. This makes it even harder for all sellers - both good and bad, diligent and lazy - to reach, let alone engage, their prospects.

Increasingly, prospects say this to sellers:

"Go away! Whatever you're selling, I'm not interested!"

This is ruining the sales game for EVERYONE. So, here is my appeal to all Marketers, SDRs and Sellers everywhere:

Stop selling like it's 2018! Stop your Pitch Slapping!

What is the Answer?

There is a far better, proven, effective and scalable way to reach out and engage your ideal prospects and customers. I wrote about it in another LinkedIn article here.

Or, if you want to know more, contact me for a chat about Modern Selling.

To your success!

Please share this article with your network. Thank you :-)

About The Author

Peter Strohkorb is the Founder and Principal of?Peter Strohkorb Sales Advisory

Peter Strohkorb Sales Advisory advises sales and business leaders on how to make their selling more buyer-focused.

We're serving clients in the Tech, SaaS and B2B Services space in west coast USA, in Asia-Pacific, and in Australia.

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