This week three of my connections have posted about how mad they get when people connect with them on social media and then try to sell them something right away. I understand the importance of getting to know, like and trust someone, but I am ok with you pitching your services to me, because I have the right to say no.
I have had a few people reach out to me and say they love what I am doing with my networking groups and they want to meet up to hear more about how they can get involved. Then when I meet them, they go into their pitch and often get upset that I wasted their time when I tell them that I am not interested. So, in fact, they weren’t interested in getting involved, they just wanted to sell.
If we are being honest with each other, most people myself included, connect with people because we hope that they will do business with us or be a referral partner, so why not just come out and say that.
Let’s make you a Financial Advisor for a moment. If you connect with me and say that you would like to meet me to talk about what you do, to see if you can help me, then I can consider the offer and say yes or no. For me I would say I have an amazing advisor that I like, but If you are open to it, I would still like to meet you to see if we can help each other. Then they can decide if that’s what they want to do.
I listen to a podcast and I love the guys approach. He reaches out to people and says I am involved in this company and I am not sure if you are open to hearing more about it, if you are that’s great if you are not that cool too. Please let me know. I think this approach is perfect.
I have had people get mad at me and disconnect from me because I asked them if they were open to attending business networking events. Now I can respect your decision if you feel that I offend you, but by disconnecting from me, I will never see any of your posts and never have a chance to help you. Wouldn’t it be easier just to say “hey thanks for thinking of me, but it’s not a match for me?”
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Kevin Willett is the Author of One Connection How you can grow your business (and change the world) one connection at a time. The business networking book is available on Amazon. Purchase One Connection on Amazon
Kevin is also the CEO of the Friends of Kevin Networking Group and the New England B2B Networking Group. Please connect with him on social media to hear about his upcoming business networking events
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