Happy New Year folks! It’s a new year and a new month, which means it’s time for a new rant…
This time I’m going to vent my frustrations with the digital equivalent of cold-calling, particularly via LinkedIn and through email. I’ve had my profile (and my company’s profile) on LinkedIn for many years now, but to be honest I’m not sure why I still have it up.
Over the past week I have literally declined at least 25 requests to “join my network”. Why? Because they’re essentially spam. WIth the exception of a single market research client I picked up 10 years ago, I have never once benefitted from a cold LinkedIn connection (note: I’m not talking about connecting with friends, clients, or business colleagues that I already know, just the digital equivalent of cold-calling). Every single cold reach-out I’ve received since then has been absolutely, positively worthless to me from a business standpoint.
Typically the people reaching out are looking to sell me something. It might be the latest and greatest software solution to whatever problems my business might encounter, or it might be a competitor who either hasn’t read the list of services we offer or for some reason thinks we need to find an outsource partner at this very minute (another note: we don’t outsource). Sometimes I’ll even read things about a “partnership”, but I can tell you from experience that the sender’s definition of a partnership is very different than mine. In this case, the term “partnership” means we send money to them, in one direction, and it never flows back to us. That’s not what I would call a partnership.
Moving forward, I’ve decided that unless someone can provide a compelling reason for me to connect with them on LinkedIn (beyond lining their pockets), I’m going to reject these cold reach-outs. It’s not that I mind having a bunch of irrelevant connections on a social media platform. That doesn’t really harm me in any way. What I don’t like is the bombardment of emails and messages that come with them. For every one of these irrelevant connections I allow in, I receive at least 2 or 3 emails or messages asking me to get on a call that I know will not produce anything of value for my company.
For what it’s worth, I see the same thing in cold emails as well. I probably receive 10 or more of these every day, and just like with LinkedIn, they never prove valuable. Sometimes they’re not even addressed to me (“hey” is my least favorite way to begin a business email). As someone who relies on bringing in new business to keep his company afloat, I would suggest a better way of attracting new prospects.
Run a quality digital marketing campaign, like a targeted Google PPC program for example, and when the phone rings take the time to answer your prospect’s questions and provide them with solutions to their problems. Give them prices that make sense for both parties and commit yourself to honesty and transparency in all that you do. Doesn’t that sound like a better approach?
And leave the spammy, cold LinkedIn and email reach-outs where they belong. In the trash bin.