Shanti’s Dispatches

I get a lot of LinkedIn spam. Perhaps its because I leave my email address on my profile.

I believe that’s a good idea, generally - I’ve made some pretty good contacts who just emailed me out of the blue from this.

It’s nice, though, if you’re going to use this technique, to at least:

1) Read up on my profile, and send a nice customized (could be just 2 sentences long) message, instead of one of the generic LinkedIn ones.

2) Perhaps Googled me to find out a bit more about me (i.e. perhaps this blog), and mentioned that in the request (this is not required, I know people are busy)

Introducing the LinkedIn Flip

Instead of ignoring or deleting spam from LinkedIn users — try selling them on one of your own products or services (do this *before* you accept their connection invitation).

If they doth protest (which I just had one person do), explain that you don’t know them, that they spent a grand total of 10seconds sending a form-letter template, and that you only connect with people who you have a working or personal relationship of some kind.

The Pushy-salesman Flip

This technique works equally well on pushy salespeople who have not buttered me up appropriately yet. You see, I have a rudimentary understanding of Psychology, so I know that if you at least butter me up first by being more personable, or perhaps give me something of value for free (with no expectation of reciprocation), then I’m a lot more likely to say Yes when the time comes for me to buy your product/service.

But I’ve had a few instances where I was approached by someone (either online or off) who was rather pushy or very forward — In retrospect I would have loved to sell them on one of my products/services instead of just blowing them off.

“Coffee’s for closers” - Alec Baldwin’s character in Glengarry Glen Ross

Coffee’s for closers (direct link)

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