Are you in or out?
A couple of weeks ago I published an update on Linkedin which caused a stir. I was beginning to get a little frustrated with the many requests to connect which led to me hearing nothing else.
In fact I was so brazen that I wrote that if I didn’t hear back from the new contact that I was going to disconnect from them.
I did update the post with this comment:
“After hearing from people I trust and those I am yet to meet I believe I may have got this wrong.”
But I felt that I wanted to explain more about my change of heart and give examples why I was wrong which may influence those who initially agreed with me.
My good friend Andy Lopata, Author of Connected is not enough and fellow Professional Speaker suggests in the post that we should consider sending a message before accepting which is one way of filtering without diluting our network.
Andy Preston, another respected friend of mine and sales trainer had this to say: “This approach with likely cost you sales opportunities and lost work”
Mike Whitehouse commented:
"I think I would keep going - when we connected I probably didn’t reply but I read nearly everyone of your posts and at some time in future - may make 1-2-1 contact"
Andrea Perez from Bermuda had a very interesting opinion on this.
"Well, let me give you my perspective on the matter. I had read an article mentioning Richard and I was interested to eventually get in touch with him and perhaps have him do a conference for us. I know I was going to forget his name so instead I sent him an invite. It allows me as well to see what he is up to. I do not need another contact but I found Richard interesting enough to have him as a contact. Nothing sinister and no malice here"
Just this morning I came off the phone with a HR Manager who is looking to book me for an event in June at The Ricoh Arena. I asked where she had found me and she told me that one of her contacts had liked something I posted on Linkedin and she then requested to connect. In my message to her I included my speaker show-reel and asked whether or not there was anything in particular that she wanted to connect with me for. She didn’t reply to that message.
If I stuck to my word and disconnected from this person I would certainly have been shooting myself in the foot. What I was unaware of was that she had shown the video to her colleagues, all of which loved it, and she was then asked to contact me which she did today.
Michelle Ganon quire rightly suggested.
"I think you're possibly expecting too much from the site setting such criteria"
I was.
So my stance has changed. I’m not going to be so stubborn to delete someone who hasn’t had time to reply. When the time is right, if they would like to reach out, then they will.
What do you think?
Senior Care Expert - Hospice, Networking, Technology
7 年I asked you to connect and I followed you because I liked an article or post that I ran across of yours, and I thought that some of my connections would like them as well. Is there harm in that?
Corporate Senior Relationship Manager for Merseyside, Cheshire & North Wales at Lombard.
7 年I have seen this site change over the years. I dislike the fb approach but I don't delete I believe that on any given day I may be needed and they will reach out and I will be there to offer support be a message, coffee or business.
B2B Marketing Strategy | Lover of animals, music, and complicated B2B GTM strategies in need of clarity.
7 年I would think of it this way. LinkedIn is just another sales tool at the end of the day. Even if it's connecting with other rocket scientists, so you can improve your skill set, doing even that is ultimately to sell *yourself* better later. That being said, if you're not consciously looking at it this way, you may be tempted to consider it in the same way many new sales reps do email or cold-calling - they're so MEAN! They won't call back! They don't take my calls! **They don't communicate with me the way *I* want to be communicated with!** We used to have a sales cycle; now we have a buy cycle. Buyers determine the conversation, best you can do is make sure the right info is available to them at the right time, and that they like what you have to say (obviously there's more to it, but you get the idea). So, the response is essentially the same here - nurture, develop, and score. Does this person look like someone that could potentially buy from you? Are they potential influencers, if not? Are they looking for a mentor (which isn't necessarily a bad thing either)? Categorize, segment, and act accordingly. Perhaps if you shift your thinking to this approach (which it sounds like you may have started to/subconsciously, but I don't think you've identified it as such to its full conclusion), instead of a deeply personal network, you may have better results and higher satisfaction. You can always add notes on the person, add them to your own CRM for more inner circle priority, etc. And when someone comes calling along for a favor, you can see pretty quickly if they've invested in the relationship or not and subsequently, how much time you should invest in return. Networking is, after all, just polite mafia at work. Put enough good will out there and you'll have lots of people eager to return the favor. Just my $0.03 ;).
EUC/ BAU/ Desktop Support Engineer
7 年I'd just like to know why the knee jerk reaction to connecting to others on LinkedIn ? This isn't Facebook. They're not your buddies. They're not personal friends or people you'd like to follow their images like on the Gram. This is supposed to be a professional connection site. A place to get work. Find people with similar interests and network with them on a professional level. Not sure what your expectations were here, but managing them and acknowledging that others have busy lives as well and can't always reply would be a good place to start