Salespeople, Please Do Your Research
Wendy Glavin, CEO & Founder, Wendy Glavin Agency
Every day I receive invites on LinkedIn. I'm happy that during these times people want to connect more with others. However, it's important to read and learn about the people with whom you want to meet.
Do research on the company, agency, business, or brand to identify their needs and interests before communicating.
I like to be kind, but as of late, I continue to receive automated invites. This means that when I connect, a message shows up offering some type of service, like graphic design. Since I have an incredible graphic design team, I don't need these services. Even a quick look at my website would show that it incorporates design aesthetics, usability, interactivity, content, social media, and the agency services we offer.
Learning about the industry sectors in which people work, helps to understand people's needs. For example, often I work with technology startups and businesses; most of which have teams of developers, data scientists, engineers, technologists, IT departments, mobile apps, chatbots, and more. Instead of targeting people to sell, the goal should be to build relationships.
One of my colleagues at a large company offers business consulting. He told me that he researches roughly 100 companies per day to learn about its interworkings, team of C-Suite executives, and reads all of its content before sending an InMail or email. Others at his firm who send mass cold emails rarely, if ever, receive a response.
During these times in particular, when we're all in this together, instead of selling, start helping. With the loss of lives, jobs, income, and mental health challenges, we need to be empathetic, sensitive, caring, and honest without having the intention of making money.Carla Harris, Vice Chairman and Managing Director of Morgan Stanley said, "If we bring our authentic selves to the table, people will trust us. And, trust is at the heart of any successful relationship."Here are ten reasons why people won't connect with you on LinkedIn:
Requesting to join someone's network to build your own, instead of it being a two-way proposition
Sending impersonal messages
Suggesting a call or demo before knowing anything about the person
Including links to your work and sending them without being asked
Sending multiple InMail requests
Rarely posting or sharing other people's content
Endorsing people with whom you've never worked with or met
Cold-calling
Writing posts that advertise your products or services
Having the goal of getting more followers
Between reading through emails, writing responses, checking and posting on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, watching the news, having Zoom calls and virtual meetings, we're inundated.Please be considerate of other people's time, before you click send.
About the Author:
Wendy
Glavin
is Founder and CEO of
; specializing in marketing, executive writing, PR and social media advisory. Based in NYC,
Wendy
is a 30-year veteran of corporate, agency, consulting and small business ownership. Her monthly technology columnist for Equities.com is “
Glavin
‘s Tech Talk.” and a featured contributor at
.
Wendy
‘s Linkedin Group is Tech Talk: “From Newbies to Savvy.” Contact her at:
.
