To sell or not to sell?

I hate being sold on LinkedIn, but I am doing something about it.

LinkedIn seems to have become the number one platform to make cold calls to do new business. I bet you know the feeling: someone is asking for a connection. You check the guy or the gal and discover it’s a “Growth Hacker” or some other contemporary corporate mumbo-jumbo.

You accept the invitation — after all, LinkedIn IS the social for business networking, right?

Invariably, the next day you find the sales pitch right in your damn mailbox.

“Hello Franz,

I am John Doe, and I am the whatever-it-takes-to-separate-you-from-your-dollars of El Cheapo Productions LLC.

We make the best stuffed animals on the planet — personalized with your client’s logo right between the eyes, as you can check on our website at …

I would really like to meet you over a coffee to talk about business”.

Invariably, in the middle of the copied-and-pasted copy bloating, I am starting to cringe. Possibly because Mr. Doe came to you without checking who you are and what business you are in. Zero. Zilch.

All that he wanted was to fire another unwanted message to boost his sales for the quarter. I understand your plight, man. But do not unload your stress on me, puh-leeze. Especially since I have little use for stuffed animals.

So, what to do?

I was abashed by conflicting emotions. On one end, I find this sleazy approach rather irksome. On the other, I understand why you resort to a medium like LinkedIn to find new prospects. I mean, it’s human. You need to pay the bills as I do.

But.

There is always a “but.”

I have started to check the requests I receive. If they are particularly useless, I skip over them. No, Joe FXBinarySignals, you won’t become part of my network. Ever. And I genuinely doubt why anyone would like to have you in theirs.

In other cases, I just accept. And when the sales pitch invariably comes, I write back mine to you.

“Hello John, nice to get in contact with you.

Although I am not planning on using stuffed animals to promote my business in the foreseeable future, I would like to inform you that I am an author, professional journalist, and copywriter with over 30 years of experience and background in international communication in APAC and Europe.

I am pretty sure that my professional skills will be invaluable in helping El Cheapo Productions selling its beautiful stuffed animals worldwide.

Please get back to me at the soonest to discuss my rates for that.

Yours truly,

F.”