Love the effort, let’s work on the ‘how’ and the ‘why’

“Here is where I want to scream… A mountain of time and energy invested in chasing something that has zero chance of success from the very start.”

Some guidance to sales approaches through LinkedIn

 

I regularly get approached by complete strangers through LinkedIn, and their sales techniques leave me a mix of inspired and speechless. Here are some thoughts on what I have seen…

 

There is a new standard, which could be great, but is fast becoming hackneyed

 

Everyone seems to have read exactly the same guide to networking and selling through social media, so much so that it is now depressingly formulaic:

 

Step 1 – send ‘personalised’ greeting, suggest we might be able to ‘help’ each other when patently what you really mean is sell to me, propose a call.

Step 2 – follow up several days later with polite secondary email, perhaps with a smiley face.

Step 3 – send me a link or pdf I might find interesting, and suggest a call again, now I have seen the ‘value’ you have to offer.

Step 4 – for the tenacious, possibly try one more time, then give up and move on.

 

I was impressed the first few times, but now, as everyone is doing the same thing, it no longer stands out, and more importantly, it just feels like a process. This then no longer makes me, the target, feel special, which makes me less inclined to respond to any approach.

 

Don’t get me wrong, I think that reaching out is amazing, and making new contacts is the lifeblood of any sales effort. It is just that we are fast approaching a modern-day version of doorstep cold calling, albeit the online, social media version. Just because you are using technology, it doesn’t excuse a lazy, ‘spray and pray’ approach. Make more effort, and you will see much better results. Social media such as LinkedIn has so much to offer, but is fast becoming a place where you are just a fish in a barrel waiting for the next fisherman to come along.

 

Lessons learnt:

For a connection request to work out, there ought to be some kind of a connection.

Reaching out to anyone and everyone with the same generic process just feels like the modern-day version of doorstep cold calling.

LinkedIn gives you a million ways to make a connection that could be meaningful, so make an effort to find that meaning.

 

A shining example of getting something nearly right, but oh so wrong

 

This happened to me recently:

 

This chap made contact with me, sending a nicely worded first introduction then following it up with a LinkedIn message suggesting we find time to talk. Nothing new here – he followed the tried and tested pattern. What then astounded me was he followed up with 5 LinkedIn messages, a bunch of direct texts, another 5 direct emails and about 6 missed phone calls, all accompanied by a cheery voicemail, at a range of times of day, one of which was at 9am on a Saturday!

 

Wow, I thought, this guy really wants to talk to me, I should see what he has to say. Then I understand that he is trying to see if my ‘asset finance team’ can handle an extra 3-5 loans a month… and here is where I want to scream. All that wonderful effort, yet I don’t do asset finance, I don’t have an asset finance team and we don’t do loans. A mountain of time and energy invested in chasing something that has zero chance of success from the very start.

 

Two things strike me about this…

 

Firstly, I am in some small way impressed. I applaud anyone who reaches out like this. I am shy about approaching strangers, be it live or virtually, and I find it very difficult to do this, so hats off to you for trying. Faceless virtual interaction is perhaps easier in some ways than physically going up to someone, but nonetheless, I am in awe of anyone who is putting themselves ‘out there’.

 

I just love the sheer effort and sales drive of it – this person clearly has an amazing work ethic where he sits down on a daily basis prospecting new clients, even on Saturday mornings! Admirable. I would love to have some of this energy in my team, it goes a long way. Ironically, if this person had bothered to contact me again even once after I had pointed out my non-asset finance characteristics, I would have been quite tempted to talk about offering him a job!

 

Secondly, however, and slightly less positively, I wonder what is going through someone’s mind when they chase people like this. Nothing I do is related to asset finance or making loans, yet this person has made over 15 attempts to contact me.

 

Arguably, LinkedIn takes away a fair bit of guesswork. I have been bothered enough to load up a comprehensive write-up of what I do, so most people should be able to peg me fairly accurately. I should be easy pickings for someone offering services that a person of my background might want or need. Here I am, come and get me.

 

Yet I regularly have a whole range of services suggested to me, from stationery to strip lighting, from IT solutions to IP protection, and now asset financing.

 

What bothers me as a sales professional is (a) that lack of discernment as regards your target audience, and (b) just the sheer bloody waste of sales effort. Sales is a tough old game – make things easier for yourself by filtering down your target audience before doing all that chasing. Work smarter, not harder.

 

I get the notion of playing the numbers – approach enough people, regardless, and some will bite, but do the research, filter your target universe that little bit, and you will be surprised at how much more effective you will become. You will be able to spend less time blindly prospecting at the top of the sales funnel, and more time further down the funnel, with your quality leads, the ones who are actually interested in what you have to offer and could in fact end up doing business with you.

 

Some takeaways on what to stop, start and continue

 

Stop

Stop reaching out blindly.

Stop chasing down anyone you come across.

Stop making meaningless connections.

Stop following a formula.

You may be wasting a lot of time and effort in places where there is very little chance of reward, and doing what everyone else is doing does not make you stand out.

 

Start

Start being more discerning with those you reach out to.

Start sprinkling some common sense and emotional intelligence in with your sales efforts.

Start being different.

Find an original way to make contact with carefully selected targets and attract their attention, then spend your time and effort on them.

 

Continue

Continue reaching out – don’t lose that wonderful effort.

If you are regularly making the effort to go out and engage with strangers, you are doing something right and will surely be somehow rewarded for it. Don’t lose that – just make sure it is with the right people for the right reasons.

 

 

It doesn’t take a lot – a small change, a small correction of the details and you are there. Take that fantastic work ethic, apply some common sense and make it original, personal and authentic, and you really will have a world-beating formula.

 

Thanks for reading.