It was early morning, and the first message in my LinkedIn inbox was a sales pitch from someone I hadn’t met before. I brought up the fact this person had never talked to me before pitching something I didn’t need… and they blocked me.
They called my response “rude and unnecessary”.
Read any sales book, and you’ll discover there is a natural order to the sales process. And that order includes uncovering a need before presenting a solution.
In essence, good salespeople gain permission before pitching.
In today’s world, it’s easy to bypass permission and use social selling as an intrusive and unprofessional way to prospect for business. You can tell when someone is desperate for business when they start to pitch you on social media without even saying hello.
In today’s world, it’s easy to bypass permission and use social selling as an intrusive and unprofessional way to prospect for business. #Patience before #Pitching. Click To TweetThat’s what happened on LinkedIn. What was really rude and unnecessary was the message in and of itself. The individual pitched me speakers they represented but didn’t even first identify if I had that need.
They made an assumption because I host events. They failed to establish any type of relationship with me prior to pitching. Not only that, but they didn’t do any due diligence online or they would have found that 2019 was the last year I hosted my big event.
This is sloppy pitching at its finest.
If you’re finding yourself needing to pitch to complete strangers to drum up new business – stop, don’t do it. Instead do these three things:
Practice Attraction
The problem with pitching is you are pursuing your buyer, which means your buyer is not pursuing you. Social media gives you access to the largest global audience in the world, but access is not permission to pitch nonstop.
Instead, take some time to build a relationship with your prospect. Establish rapport, get to know them and do some research to see if you can uncover a need. Have a bit of patience before you jump to the pitch.
Start by building rapport and trying to provide value for others. Then, you’ll become much more attractive than if you’re pitching blindly hoping to score a sale.
If you start by building rapport and trying to provide value for others, you’ll become much more attractive than if you’re pitching blindly hoping to score a sale. Click To Tweet
Be Normal, Not Creepy
While you may really be on the hunt for new business, consider how you connect with others:
- What is normal and natural behaviour.
- Versus what is creepy and unnatural behaviour.
If you walked into a retail store and someone immediately walked up to you and asked you to buy something you had no need for, it would be a huge turnoff.
The same is true online.
Social media is meant to be social. People buy from people they know, like and trust. This means that emulating natural relationship-building is the key to generating interest and inbound leads for your business.
When your online behaviour is fueled by a keyboard with no consideration for the person reading on their end of the screen, you run the risk of damaging your reputation and turning away 10x more business than you can manage to close with aimless pitching.
People buy from people they know, like and trust. This means that emulating natural relationship-building is the key to generating interest and inbound leads for your business. Click To TweetGive More Than You Take
If you really need business, keep this in mind. Anytime someone mentions you and your business to someone they know and before that person makes a decision to reach out, they are creeping you.
They are checking out your social media profile. They are reading about you, consuming some of your content and visiting your website. Why? To get a vibe for whether or not they want to do business with you.
- When you are a prolific content creator who consciously adds value on a regular basis, you’re a giver.
- When you give more recommendations than you’ve received, you’re a giver.
- And when you share and comment on other people’s content, you’re a giver.
Let people see your character online. You’ll minimize your need to pitch and attract qualified leads on a regular basis.
The long and short of this is simple: We buy from people we know, like and trust. We don’t buy from people who lack the patience to build a relationship with us before pitching their products and services.
How do you create relationship with leads? Tell me in a comment below.
1 thought on “Practice Patience Before Pitching”
Really enjoyed this authentic article. I’ve always found helping others, sharing recommendations has always helped keep a thriving work and social environment for me and my network. Come from a place of service and you will never be in lack.