One email came in to offer to help me (with a service  I just do not need, had they even read anything about me!)

I placed her in the spam folder.

Then in minutes, another person from the same domain name referred to her colleague’s earlier email and offered to expand upon the earlier offer, as if more information on the service (funny, but after the few minutes’ time between their unsolicited emails, I still don’t need it!) would sway me to being remotely curious.

Now his email was shot into the spam folder.

No need to ask to unsubscribe or respond with “stop.”

Their MO:

  • Throw “it” on the wall and hope it sticks, once, or if not the first time, once again JIC I had a change of heart or mind. Or both.
  • Not to tell me how they came across me as a prospect (name of a mutual contact, seeing my work somewhere, etc.), just a blind email.
  • Not to initiate a relationship that eventually leads to reliance, respect, and thus trust (and believe me, their service requires trust!)
  • Not to have researched me and my needs to be sure they are making a meaningful effort.
  • But to throw me an email from one or more seemingly desperate faceless salespeople, with nothing to make me want to read more, see more, demo, and/or view or read testimonials.

A series of unsolicited emails in words, with typos in the same words in both emails, I might add. Hmmm……………….

Their service requires attention to details (with financial penalties for failure to adhere to regulations). But–wait–their emails fail to pay that attention, so big DISCONNECT buzzers are going off in my head.

They are not working for me, even in their wildest, most optimistic dreams.

LinkedIn moral of the story: make your profile and posts meaningful, get ready to play the long game of getting to know prospects before you sell them anything, and be sure you approach them with the “why” that makes sense for their business needs, not your need to carve another notch in the sales stick.

And finally, in all you do on LinkedIn and elsewhere, pay attention to details (see this oldie but goodie blog post) so you come across as diligently worthy of the business!