I was prompted to ask the question after watching several people over the last few days add one LinkedIn status update after another that talked about how great they are. And lately, not a day goes by that I don’t receive some sort of network invitation that is a thinly disguised sales pitch that isn’t all that great anyway. What’s up with that?

Stop Pitching – Create Value!

If all you do is talk about you, you, you…no one will care and they will just tune you out. Frankly, that’s what gives sales a bad rap. It isn’t the profession though, it’s the people who can’t comprehend that it is the sharing of “relevant” information, making connections for others, touting the horns of your colleagues and adding value to the conversation is what ultimately benefits you.

Listen, I’m a business owner with products and services to sell, and I consult with companies about how to use social media effectively to augment their sales efforts. Obviously, I believe that social media tools like LinkedIn are a great way to increase visibility for what you have to offer. My point is that it is OK to mention your services, but that should not be the ONLY thing you talk about.

What about your brand?

This is all about perception – your brand. What message do you really think you are sending to prospective buyers when every post, group comment or newsletter you send out is all about you? I can’t think of a quicker way to turn people off. When it comes to sending LinkedIn invitations, please stop trying to sell me before you know a thing about me. Here is an example of an invitation I received over the weekend that illustrates what I’m saying. I’ve removed the names to protect the hapless.

On June 19, 2009 2:27 PM, XYZ Salespersonwrote:
——————–
I’d like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn. I have worked with XYZ Colleague in the past & she recommended you to me as far as someone who would probably benefit from XYZ company’s industry intelligence. Please call me as soon as possible at …, so I can help you grow & be THE most consultative person you know!!

- Sales person

So let me get this right? You don’t know me from Eve, but you are sure that you can help me be THE most consultative person you know? Now I don’t know about you, but this is both rude and presumptuous. What does this person know about my consultative sales skills? I’m kinda wondering if she might want to get some training in this area herself, but that’s just me. This is exactly why people are annoyed by vendors and their arrogant, untrained sales people who assume that what they have to offer is just what everyone on the planet needs. Not to mention that this individual was lazy. What if she had done her homework and then crafted a message that told Barb what was in it for her? Then I would have been paying attention. The problem with these types of emails is that the opportunity to sell what you offer is probably blown. Forever.

I was feeling charitable, because it pains me to see sales people do such dumb things, so I responded with…

XYZ Salesperson,

I am not including you in my network and have already passed along my feedback to XYZ Colleague. Your email is offensive in that you know nothing about me, yet assume you can make me a better consultant. Why would I call you? You have provided no value to me as a business owner at all. You may have a great product, but your sales approach and netiquette may lose you more sales than you gain.

To this person’s credit, they got the message loud and clear and responded with an email that apologized for their thoughtless words and asked for another chance. I haven’t decided if another chance is warranted or not, because at this point the product better be awfully damn compelling and something that I cannot purchase elsewhere.

As for the guy in one of my LinkedIn groups who complained about the arrogance of someone who wasn’t interested in his product and then kept justifying to everyone why he and his company were so great, I have two words for you…dumb ass.

I was prompted to ask the question after watching several people over the last few days add one LinkedIn status update after another that talked about how great they are. And lately, not a day goes by that I don’t receive some sort of network invitation that is a thinly disguised sales pitch that isn’t all that great anyway. What’s up with that?

Stop Pitching – Create Value!

If all you do is talk about you, you, you…no one will care and they will just tune you out. Frankly, that’s what gives sales a bad rap. It isn’t the profession though, it’s the people who can’t comprehend that it is the sharing of “relevant” information, making connections for others, touting the horns of your colleagues and adding value to the conversation is what ultimately benefits you.

Listen, I’m a business owner with products and services to sell, and I consult with companies about how to use social media effectively to augment their sales efforts. Obviously, I believe that social media tools like LinkedIn are a great way to increase visibility for what you have to offer. My point is that it is OK to mention your services, but that should not be the ONLY thing you talk about.

What about your brand?

This is all about perception – your brand. What message do you really think you are sending to prospective buyers when every post, group comment or newsletter you send out is all about you? I can’t think of a quicker way to turn people off. When it comes to sending LinkedIn invitations, please stop trying to sell me before you know a thing about me. Here is an example of an invitation I received over the weekend that illustrates what I’m saying. I’ve removed the names to protect the hapless.

On June 19, 2009 2:27 PM, XYZ Salespersonwrote:
——————–
I’d like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn. I have worked with XYZ Colleague in the past & she recommended you to me as far as someone who would probably benefit from XYZ company’s industry intelligence. Please call me as soon as possible at …, so I can help you grow & be THE most consultative person you know!!

- Sales person

So let me get this right? You don’t know me from Eve, but you are sure that you can help me be THE most consultative person you know? Now I don’t know about you, but this is both rude and presumptuous. What does this person know about my consultative sales skills? I’m kinda wondering if she might want to get some training in this area herself, but that’s just me. This is exactly why people are annoyed by vendors and their arrogant, untrained sales people who assume that what they have to offer is just what everyone on the planet needs. Not to mention that this individual was lazy. What if she had done her homework and then crafted a message that told Barb what was in it for her? Then I would have been paying attention. The problem with these types of emails is that the opportunity to sell what you offer is probably blown. Forever.

I was feeling charitable, because it pains me to see sales people do such dumb things, so I responded with…

XYZ Salesperson,

I am not including you in my network and have already passed along my feedback to XYZ Colleague. Your email is offensive in that you know nothing about me, yet assume you can make me a better consultant. Why would I call you? You have provided no value to me as a business owner at all. You may have a great product, but your sales approach and netiquette may lose you more sales than you gain.

To this person’s credit, they got the message loud and clear and responded with an email that apologized for their thoughtless words and asked for another chance. I haven’t decided if another chance is warranted or not, because at this point the product better be awfully damn compelling and something that I cannot purchase elsewhere.

As for the guy in one of my LinkedIn groups who complained about the arrogance of someone who wasn’t interested in his product and then kept justifying to everyone why he and his company were so great, I have two words for you…dumb ass.

I watched an example of a meltdown of ego’s in a LinkedIn group discussion today. A colleague alerted me to the situation and frankly, I couldn’t believe my eyes. This is exactly the kind of thing that in an instant can destroy your credibility as a professional and put your company’s brand at risk. It started innocently enough with each person putting their opinion forth…and then it got nasty. Here are a few of the excerpts:

Guys, I don’t want to rain on your parade but…. this happens to be my area of expertise for the last 10 years. Dolly, it has nothing to do with the intended audience or whether it is formal or informal learning. Roger, when I refer to hard baked I am referring to static content which is a blob and not easily maintained or all that intelligent. Roger, I will need some time to educate you. I am not sure there is enough space in this forum to do so.

Rule # 1 – Don’t insult other people by making it personal. Everyone has their opinion. Be careful not to confuse your sales agenda with contributing ideas to the discussion. This isn’t about winning or insisting that people believe in your point of view.

After those thoughtless comments, as in everyone else is wrong but her, the game is now on. It was painful to watch, and I’m only giving you the highlights. Believe me, it was much, much worse!

Sorry Brenda, It looks like you haven’t been paying attention for the last ten years. Maybe you should find a new career. Your ideas are strictly 1997, and you clearly haven’t been looking closely at the online collaboration and learning repository technologies that have evolved in online tools such as ours, or in Rapid intake’s new online version, or in Atlantic Link etc.

As I stated Roger, there is not enough room in this forum for me to educate you. I know your system; I know Atlantic Link and the many other online authoring tools. I don’t think you are a smart as you give yourself credit for. Do your homework. LCMS’s have matured over the last 10 years. You don’t have a clue what you are talking about. Duh, what do you think tools like Lectora and yours for that matter use to animate objects in a browser? Scripting Languages or proprietary authoring tools like Flash. I know more about web services than you could even imagine.

And it kept going…

Wow, Brenda, I really hadn’t intended to turn this forum into a personal vendetta, your arrogance is as deep as your ignorance. You are the classic case of the salesperson becoming indoctrinated by their own BS.

And going…

Dude, can I have some of whatever it is you are smoking. It is not productive to go point on point because clearly you know I am right. I am so far from just a salesperson. You have no idea who I am otherwise you would not be so arrogant. Right, Boeing, World Wide, Enterprise Wide is my customer. They are building and managing many thousands of courses and deploying that content to 160,000 world wide employees. How many Boeing employees are you serving, LOL. Lets not even go there.

And going…

Your too funny with the founding father thing. I challenge you to find out who I am. Roger, you are smoking your own crack. No one is locked into our own authoring capability. There you go again. Do your home work, old fellow.

OMG – someone please tell this woman to shut up is all I kept thinking. She is rude, arrogant and evidently has no social graces whatsoever. This is a classic case of a sales person who ventured far, far off the reservation. She was so caught up in winning that she evidently lost her mind. Trust me, I scaled it back significantly. I can’t imagine what would possess anyone to behave that way, but clearly she was too caught up in making sure that everyone else knew she was the smartest person on the planet. She isn’t. Giving no thought to the fact that she risked damaging the reputation of the company that she represented, she kept mouthing off. Actually, she did do harm to her employer and more. For anyone reading, I have to believe that her image was forever tarnished in their minds, as it was in mine. I know whenever I see her name I will say to others – buy from someone else. That does significant damage to her company.

What happened today is a company’s worst nightmare. Some idiot employee mouthing off doing damage to the company brand. Instead of running away or saying that this is why social media should be avoided, it is an opportunity for a company to ensure that they have some guidelines for their employees to follow. I stress guidelines that come tethered with accountability. Don’t hamstring people with oversight, rigid control and micro-management, but do insist that certain types of behavior will not be tolerated.

Respect and appreciation for the diverse viewpoints of others is as critical in the online world, as it offline. I wonder, would she have really said those ignorant, stupid things if she was talking to him face to face? Would he have said those things to her if they were standing toe to toe at a networking function? My guess is not. And that’s the moral of the story. Loose lips definitely sink ships. Be careful what you say online!

Whether you are posting in LinkedIn groups, talking to friends on Facebook, participating in blogs or tweeting on Twitter, you need to understand that netiquette covers both common courtesy online and the informal “rules of the road” of cyberspace. In this world, you must be even more conscious of how and what you are saying; otherwise you run the risk of offending people who not only won’t take it kindly, but they will vigorously pass on their displeasure to everyone they know.

Here are my 3 top tips for avoiding online communication disaster:

Tip #1: Don’t sell.

This philosophy may seem counterintuitive if you believe that using online tools is just a cheap way to market and sell what you have to offer to a large number of people. Wrong!  Nothing turns people off faster than having some “slick Willy” enter the scene, who within minutes is hawking their latest product or service. If this is the approach you take, be prepared for a community smack down that will damage your reputation.

Tip #2: Give to receive.

People will always want to do business with people they know, like and trust. That takes time! Throwing up a LinkedIn profile today will NOT mean a sale tomorrow, so learn to be patient. You must first build a relationship with others in the community by giving more than you receive. Share information; make connections, and as people get to know you, they will naturally want to know more about what you have to offer.

Tip #3: Be human.

While technology is an amazing enabler, people are still on the other side. Think carefully about what you say and do. It’s certainly OK to be yourself and share your opinions, but always treat others with courtesy and respect. If you wouldn’t say it “to their face” then absolutely do not say it online.  If you are angry or annoyed then take a breath before you type those words and push send. As many have learned the hard way – what’s said on the internet definitely stays on the internet!

If you are going to use standard email versus a program for email marketing like Constant Contact then please hear me when I tell you that you leave the window wide open for that unscrupulous someone who will push out a sales pitch to people that YOU know, but THEY don’t. Well…until you gave out everyone’s email address that is.

This happened to me earlier this week.

The email was an announcement about a business endeavor a friend had recently put together, and I was glad to receive the information. Unfortunately, he used email for the message and put everyone on his list in the “to” line exposing all of us to potential spam.

And you guessed it…minutes later, David – who needs a few netiquette lessons – “replied all” to the message and tried to sell us his interviewing products. Sending unsolicited sales propaganda without securing permission while trashing my friend’s network at the same time is really tacky. The guy lacks an integrity gene in my opinion, and I would NEVER buy from anyone like that. And the worse part is that he didn’t care one iota about how it might affect my friend’s reputation. All he cared about was himself!

Tips to avoid this happening to you…

• Unless you are positive that everyone on that list knows each other – use BCC (blind carbon copy) to hide the information.

• Use an email marketing system like Constant Contact. Not only does it resolve the thorny issue of exposing your network accidentally, but email marketing systems are designed to handle the opt-out stuff required by law.

• Communicate your spam policy to you network. Let them know that you are not giving them permission to sell to your network and that if they do they become “persona non grata”.

Always remember that your “network” is a precious asset that must be protected. Make sure that you do!