« Never Fly Solo: Life Lessons from a Fighter Pilot | Main | Be Inspired in 2010 »

Comments

SalesBlogcast

Hi Jill! Funny story ;-)

I get these types of emails all the time, and for me... it's the very first sentence that makes me cringe, "Hi Jill I was hoping we may be able to help each other. We're currently first level contacts on Linkedin and I hope you don't mind my reaching out to you."

1. I was hoping we may be able to help each other... (There's got to be a more powerful way to start than that. How about opening with some specifics and say, "Hi Jill, I have some ideas on ways we can work together...")

2. We're Currently 1st level connections... (Too many people are using that line... and I think it's the online equivalent of saying, "I'm calling just to touch base")

3. I hope you don't mind my reaching out to you. (That's so weak it hurts!)

Talk to you soon!

Doyle

Jill Konrath

Doyle,

You're just way more popular on LinkedIn than I am. This is the first time a stranger has approached me with this kind of message.

But you're right. If they had a specific idea, it would have been much more compelling.

Jill

Marcus Sheridan

Thanks for this article Jill. This is my first time on your site and I can see you've written about some really unique topics, some of which I could certainly use some work;-). But it is amazing just how many people will send out solicitations these days without really doing any leg work upfront. It's almost as if in many ways we've become a society of sales solicitations, but not sales relationships. Keep up the great work, I'm sure you'll see me again.

Geoff Alexander

I get those approaches too, Jill. But probably the most common (I get a couple of these just about every day) is an email with "would like to meet" in the subject line. Occasionally I'll actually read one. They usually begin with "Hi Geoff, In this tough economy, many companies are looking to..."

The comments to this entry are closed.

Contact Info

  • Phone: 651.429.1922
    [email protected]
    Twitter: @jillkonrath

Twitter Updates

    follow me on Twitter
    Blog powered by Typepad