Many years ago we were all introduced to a professional network called LinkedIn, an ability to connect with peers from other businesses and help to meet interesting people to learn from, aspire to and hopefully help to drive career opportunities for in the future.
Previously, receiving a LinkedIn invite to extend your professional network was a little bit exciting. Who is it that sees value and opportunity of being connected. There wasn’t an abundance of invites coming through every week (unless you are Richard Branson of course) but it was enough to really maintain a professional network.
Recently I’ve noticed that the tone of the professional invites that I’ve received has changed, and I’ve felt a bit more like speed dating compared to professional network connections, and let’s just say there’s not any second dates happening. I’m not sure whether this change has been impacted due to COVID but I’ve become really disappointed by some of the antics that have confronted me.
I strongly believe that LinkedIn is a valuable tool and it’s been sad to see the way that some people are trying to take advantage of it and certainly forgetting that it is a “Professional network”.
This change has not only made me a bit frustrated and underwhelmed but it’s also made me think about the importance of maintaining professionalism in all aspects of marketing and the sales. We know that times have changed and reaching out to the right person who looks after your particular area of business interest is no longer just about calling through reception and asking to be transferred through to “the person who looks after….” but should this negate the need to remain professional and positively representing your business interest?
Let me share with you one of the invites that I received last week, which has stood out for all the wrong reasons.
The invite came from an individual, without a business name, touting themselves as a “Marketing Professional keen to build their professional network”. Now, I’m not afraid to share my network with others but I certainly want to ensure that the people I include are not going to take advantage and harass my network. As I read the message, I actually found myself getting angry. Statements that stood out included “completely wrong”; “incompetent management”; “zero growth”; “I’m the expert”; “You must meet with me”; “You will never succeed”. After the last statement I could feel my blood boiling and quickly pressed the ignore button (wishing their was an option to report the person for unprofessional behaviour).
What made it worst was that the person was talking about an area of business which is not included in my profile nor is anything that I would even be remotely involved with in any of the roles that I’ve held. So, the communicator of the message obviously hadn’t really considered their audience and more importantly, had not even checked my profile to find out even the smallest bit about me before sending what you would consider as a “nasty message”.
This had me questioning whether the value that I felt I was receiving from being a part of LinkedIn may no longer exist. Am I just lost in another sales tool which is not going to deliver the professional value that I previously felt that I received?
Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure that there is value and I don’t want to discount it completely but I do want to share my thoughts with small businesses on not taking advantage and turning what is an important tool to many in to just another telemarketing line. The example that I’ve shared with you was certainly an extreme and I would hope to think that it is not a sign of things to come however, I feel that with the majority of invites I’ve received lately I press the “Ignore” button as I know that the person on the other side is only wanting to try and sell me something.
As a small business, if you are wanting to dabble in using tools like LinkedIn to help grow your network and sales funnel, there’s a few professional courtesy considerations that you might want to make before launching:
- Read profiles first: Before targeting an individual understand whether they are actually the right person to connect with and are relevant to you and your business.
- Introduce yourself: make it personal and aim to build rapport first.
- Don’t go straight to the hard sell: successful professional relationships are built predominantly on trust. Without trust you are just a sales person so work on developing a relationship first.
- Keep professional: being critical of something or someone that you are not involved in is not the best place to start. It’s likely that a professional who has a responsibility to look after something in a business is well aware of the challenges and is already working through ways to improve it – it’s not nice being told how to do your job by a complete stranger.
- Share content: if you are in a position to share ideas and content that is relevant, will help build rapport and position your business as a potential expert / partner in this area, is a great start in building professional respect and planting a seed for future opportunity.
- Don’t rebut refusals: if you are politely declined, don’t keep harassing and targeting the individual. This will not help you nurture the relationship and certainly won’t put you in a good position for business opportunities in the future.
Like in all marketing and sales, it’s so important to consider your audience and channel that you are communicating in. If your message has the potential to be misunderstood or isn’t right for the channel you are communicating through, don’t use it. If your audience is wrong, look for another. Whether it’s in B2B or B2C, the right message, to the right customer, through the right channel at the right time is still fundamental to all success.
Good Luck and Stay Safe.
The Marketing Elf
©September 2020
The Marketing Elf 