On Tuesday, a GBN member emailed me to ask, “Could you please do more education minutes on Sales and Marketing?”
I spent more time than I meant to spend on Change Anything and leadership, but I planned to pivot to sales and marketing before moving on to another segment on personal efficiency later in the year.
I had one or two more lessons on leadership before coming back to the topic in the fall. But on Wednesday, I changed my mind and shifted gears after I received a LinkedIn message. It started two weeks earlier when I received the following message:
I generally accept most LinkedIn requests as long as it is clear that they are not drug dealers, Russian hackers, or part of the adult entertainment business, so I accepted his request. A few days later, I received a bit of a pitchy statement thanking me for accepting his connection. It was generic, but I am sure it was the same generic thank you response he sends to everyone.
I have redacted identifying features. From here out, we will call him “salesman.”
Salesman said, “If I was experiencing frustration with employee engagement, I should reach out” because he has, “A highly effective process to help employees to increase engagement and productivity, while also getting healthy.”
That was interesting, and if we had a personal relationship, I would tuck that away for a future day when I could refer him to someone who needed his services.
Another week past, and I assumed I would never hear from Salesman again. Then I received the pitch. It started off well enough:
“Hi Darin, How are you today? I was reaching out to see if we could connect?”
Sure. I would be happy to connect. You never know what you will learn from sitting down with others to discuss their business.
But then it devolved. Salesman wrote, “I would like to learn more about your company’s current corporate wellness initiatives and see if EP Health could be a great addition. Would it be possible to get on a phone call to discuss? I would definitely like to meet you and hear more J”
OK, pal. It is now clear that you do not know your audience. Salesman is asking me about my company’s corporate wellness initiatives as if I have change-making authority . He might as well be asking a vegetarian about which barbecue cooking show he prefers. It would have taken all of a minute to scan my LinkedIn profile and realize that I am a college professor. I have no power to make decisions over my university’s corporate wellness program.
But Salesman continued in his generic pitch: “Schedule a Call Here: [link omitted]. I have also included a one page PDF that gives you a brief introduction of the program. I look forward to your response and the possibility of working together.”
I did not ask for this. I do not want this. Salesman has completely overlooked my interests. As a business professor, I might have been a useful node in Salesman’s network, but he tried to sell me rather than see the potential value that I might be as a referral partner.
Why Didn’t He Make the Sale?
You have all the facts you need to diagnose the problem. Why didn’t Salesman make the sale?
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Dr. Darin Gerdes is a Professor of Management in the College of Business & the Director of Educational Technology at Charleston Southern University. All ideas expressed on www.daringerdes.com are his own.
This post was originally created for Great Business Networking (GBN), a networking organization for business professionals where Dr. Gerdes is the Director of Education.