Ambushing on Facebook or LinkedIN messaging is NOT selling!
When making a new connection on Social Media, your first contact with that person will dictate how your relationship will proceed. Do it right and you will have made a potentially valuable connection. Do it wrong and you will have no chance at ever doing business with that person and will possibly be eliminated from your new connections network as quickly as they invited you in.
I don’t know who is teaching this “Ambush” tactic as a viable selling technique, but to true sales professionals, it’s like fingernails on a blackboard.
I’ve just recently noticed this tactic growing on both FB and LI. Maybe it’s because my network is reaching the appropriate size to be a target for these misinformed hacks, but anyone who thinks this is a viable selling strategy that builds long term loyalty and trust is sadly mistaken. In fact, it is quite the opposite.
Here’s how the “Ambush” tactic works, and I’m sure many of you have experienced it firsthand.
Step 1. Search for potential prospects for your product or service. Good so far.
Step 2. Send a connection request on LI or friend request on FB. Still good.
Step 3. Upon acceptance of the request, send a message to the new connection. Still good.
Step 4. In the initial message the hack pitches their product, service or “opportunity”
This is more common in very specific industries (and you know who you are) more than others. In fact, it has become so common in one industry, if I see it anywhere in their profile, news feed or recent posts, I will refuse to connect, just because the probability of having to put up with them is not something I want to spend time on.
In many cases I see this happening when someone is transitioning from a non-sales job, gets excited about the new opportunity in which they are involved, and want’s people to know about it, but have no sales training on how to properly build a list, contact, propose, present, close and follow up.
If not trained the new sales person may be unaware of the importance of providing value to their prospects prior to pitching their opportunity. Many haven’t even taken the time to read the profile of the person they’re ambushing.
I couldn’t tell you how many times, within an hour of accepting a request, I get a message asking “Have you heard about _________?” Then shortly thereafter asking completely stupid questions that any sales professional worth their salt would know to do. They ask questions such as, “Where are you from?” Or, “What do you do?” Both questions are thoroughly answered (along with a plethora of other information) on my FB, LI, Twitter & IG profiles.
How on earth would a person expect to sell me anything if 1. I don’t have any idea who they are because they haven’t taken the time to build any kind true connection. 2. And more importantly, they don’t know who I am, or what I do?!?
I don’t know who is teaching new sales people this tactic, it’s too common for that many people to come up with this pathetic approach to selling. I don’t know if there’s a book, a YouTube video or what. But someone is teaching this garbage and sending a group of potentially professional sales people down the road of “Sales Hackery” and ultimately failure.
If you’re on Social Media, and you want to build lasting clients, who will come back to you, refer you and make you substantial income, you must stop this practice. Read the profiles of the people with whom you connect. Know who they are, where they are and what they do, before contacting them. There is a wealth of knowledge on Social Media about practically anyone you’re interested in becoming a client.
It used to be very difficult to find information about potential prospects. Now you can search for someone across the social platforms and Google to find out enormous amounts of intelligence. Do that and use it. Not in a creepy way, but in an informed way to know how to establish your relationship, and how to tailor your approach & presentation.
A good initial contact would be to give your new connection a copy of an eBook or link to an article you’ve written (not an advertisement either). Tell them you’re glad to have them as a new connection and found an article on THEIR industry they might find interesting and give them the link.
Never, never, never pitch on the first contact! Just as a caveat, opening your message with, “Hello, how are you today _____” does not qualify as an adequate pre-pitch ice breaker. I get that one a lot too.
If, however, you enjoy being a hack and have no interest in building a strong network of clients, then by all means continue the practice.
It will only make the lives of us who are professionals, and who place a high value on the clients we earn, easier to acquire. The people you piss off with this tactic will find the approach of a true professional very refreshing and will happily build a trust relationship and eventually do business with them.
Want to learn effective, powerful ways to approach, pitch and close more deals, or maybe you have peaked and would like to take your sales to the next level. If so, you really should contact me about a new approach to sales I’ve developed. “The Science of Selling.” In this methodology I teach sales professionals to effectively REAP more sales at higher margins, while building a deep trust relationship with all of their prospects and clients to quickly, effectively “REAP.” Read, Evaluate, Assess and Persuade. If you’d like to build trust relationships to the point your clients and prospects want to do business with you, you really need to check out “The Science of Selling”