Your Sales Pitch: Just stop it!

It’s happened again. A seemingly interesting person reached out to connect with me here on LinkedIn.

I checked out what they do – it seems aligned with my work ?

I checked out who else they are connected to – people I know and respect ?

And I clicked “accept.”

Within seconds, I received a message selling me their services and asking to set up a call.

I’m sure you’re a busy person so I’ll be direct…

Hildy, if I could show you how we’re helping leaders like yourself heighten their fill-in-the-blank, would you be open to a FREE ______________ session? Zero obligation but I know you’ll walk away with a lot of value. Let me know what day/times works best for you!

It could have been worse. It could have ended with the P.S. I got from another sales guy:

P.S. The longer you wait, the more you leave yourself and your business vulnerable in the face of the looming recession…

Here’s what I do when I get these.

First, I unfollow. ?

Then I un-connect. ?

Then I wait for the barrage – and it always comes.

Just sending you a gentle nudge, Hildy! Not sure if you saw my initial message.

I am pretty sure I will get another “gentle nudge” before this person stops sending me these notes. Generally it seems they send 3 and then move on.

And my question is this:

Does this crap actually work?

Do people actually trust an aggressive sales pitch from a random stranger on LinkedIn? When they get these cold solicitations, do they think "Oh good! I was hoping a total stranger would invite me to share my most intimate business problems with them!" ??

Picture this:

You’re at a party. You are introduced to someone who knows some of your friends. “Hey, you know Joe? Me, too! And it seems like we do similar work!”

Now imagine their very next words are, “Does Tuesday work for a Zoom call, so I can tell you about this thing I’m selling?”

If ever there were a thing that gives “sales” a bad name, it’s this garbage. Because in real life, you would be looking to escape that person as quickly as possible!

So here’s the lesson. We all hear it, we all learn it. Clearly it's not sinking in:

True sales is about relationships, not numbers.

It’s not about THIS sale, but the 3rd sale – the one where I come back to you again and again because I love what I get from the relationship.

And I’m not going to love the relationship if it starts with your hand in my pocket. I will instead do what I do on LinkedIn:

I will unfollow ?

I will un-connect ?

And I will block you. ?

So here’s my advice:

Stop it. Just stop it.

And start building real relationships with people who care about what you care about.

This will NOT result in a quick sale. But it WILL result in long-term stability for your business, whatever that business may be.

And along the way, you might just make a real friend.

#sales #marketing #behuman