Connect And Pitch Is As Low As You Can Go On LinkedIn
An example of what shows up in my message inbox way too often.
You connect with someone on LinkedIn. In your first message you immediately pitch them on your product or service. Here’s a whole bunch of reasons why Connect and Pitch is not a good way to start a relationship with your new connection.
1) It’s not even new
People have been doing it for years now. You come across as the same as all the other connect and pitch types on LinkedIn. How often have you opened that first message from a new connection, seen a bad sales pitch enclosed and your first thought is, “Not another one.”
Remember when people figured out they could piggyback a pitch onto a birthday greeting when LinkedIn first brought birthday notifications out? At least that one was novel…for a while.
2) The success odds are very low
This is an incredibly low probability tactic that risks alienating huge swaths of your prospect base. The argument made by the types who preach and swear by this system always seem to come down to “it’s a numbers game.” Of course another way of phrasing that would be “throw enough sh*t at the wall and some of it will stick.”
On behalf of all of us who are having that sh*t thrown at us, please stop.
3) You have not established your credibility with your new connection
And what credibility you did have which caused the person to connect with you just went out the window with your sales pitch. And making an outlandish claim to establish your credibility? My first reaction is always, “If you’re that good, why do you need to pitch anyone? Why aren’t you swamped with referrals?”
I am a big advocate of the idea that you need to establish your credibility with a prospective customer and earn the right to sell them.
4) You don’t know if the new connection is a good fit for your product or service
You don’t know what their problems are, or their priorities for that matter. Because you are in such a hurry, you have to make assumptions, and that’s never a good start.
5) Quite frankly, you look like an idiot
My typical reactions when I see something like this are things like, “this person is lazy” or “this person isn’t very bright” or “this person has zero imagination.”
These are not attributes I am looking for in a supplier or partner.
6) Many of these pitches are automated, and that’s not smart
For two reasons: Using automation lends itself to not bothering to read the recipient’s profile, where the sender may miss obvious clues that the recipient is a bad fit, or not a fit at all for their product or service.
And LinkedIn does not like automation. It can get you in trouble.
Why does it seem like the only people who think this is a fabulous idea are the people selling the automation software behind it?
7) It shows that your time is more important than mine
You could take the time to examine the new connection’s profile, start a conversation, find their pain points and if things looked good, pitch your product or service then. But the connect and pitch approach comes across as “I don’t have the time for that. I am not interested in wasting my time learning more about you.”
You may argue this point, but that’s how it comes across to the recipient, and perhaps the recipient’s opinion matters.
To paraphrase the esteemed philosopher Dean Wurmer in Animal House, “Using a sales gimmick that’s outdated, stale and boring and is no way to go through life, son.
