I have recently received a flurry of invitations on Linkedin to connect with people who claim to be experts who desperately want to sell me whatever is the special of the day. However, instead of actual interest in spending any time on discovery, the invitation is a hard sell or worse, pretends to be something else, like a podcast invitation. It is then followed by a short questionnaire that asks the typical sales questions. It hardly tries to hide its intent.
Maybe I’m rare, but I hate hard sells. I wonder what they think they achieve by telling me their impressive stats that tell me they can find me thousands of leads, overnight success, etc. It’s one step away from the letters from imposter princes asking for your information so they can deposit their riches in your bank account.
Marketing at its best is about building relationships. Some will grow and some will fail. It all starts with a conversation. This means you need to be a bit selective about the conversations you have and then if all goes well, be ready to grow and nurture them.
